Wu Onehalf
by Maximara
Summary: Bringing Ranma and sisters. Will explain on arrival. - Genma' but Ranma was an only child so where did these sisters come from? Ranma-3x3 Eyes-Sailor Moon-Yugioh crossover.
1. Chap 01 Arrival and Directory

Ranma 1/2 is the creation of Rumiko Takahashi, 3x3 eyes (Sazan Eyes) is the creation of Yuzo Takada, Sailor Moon is the creation of Naoko Takeuchi. All are used without permission. This fan-fiction isn't intended for commercial use but is rather a tribute to Ranma 1/2, 3X3 Eyes, and Sailor Moon.

Chapter 1 - Arrival

Bringing Ranma and sisters. Will explain on arrival. - Genma

Soun scratched his head in puzzlement, as far as he knew Ranma had been an only child but who cared as long as Genma was bringing his son. "Kasumi!, Nabiki!, Akane! come here I have something important to tell you."

As soon as Soun and his three daughters were seated at a table he told them about the agreement he and Genma had made. Akane was fuming but at least Nabiki and Kasumi were considering the idea.

"Is he cute?" asked Nabiki with a cheerful expression on her face.

"How old is he? Younger men bore me." The slight tinge of ice in Kasumi's voice frightened Soun a little bit. 'Ok perhaps only Nabiki was really considering the idea. I think my other daughters are considering how to make my life miserable,' Soun thought.

"What kind of perverted boy is he?" asked Akane with enough venom in her voice to rival that of 100 cobras.

"Ah well you see I don't know as I've never met him." Soun laughed nervously.

Before any of his stunned daughters could speak a panda burst into the room carrying a young red headed girl. Dropping the girl on the floor the panda whipped out a sign; 'Quickly, hot water please.'

"Oh my, a trained panda. Will you be staying for dinner?" The panda just stared at Kasumi for a moment before turning the sign around 'If I don't get hot water right NOW it's likely I'll BE dinner.'

Before anyone could move two more girls burst into the room. The smaller of them was dressed simply, carrying a staff, and had a strange tattoo on her forehead. "Oh there you are. What for you knock Pia's sister Ranko out and leave Pai behind? How Pai supposed to learn martial arts and perform duties as Wu when you keep taking Ranko away?"

The taller of the new arrivals had what looked like balloons on sticks, dressed like she just fell out of a Tarzan movie, and didn't look the least bit happy. "Shampoo think stupid Panda Man understand by now. Sanjiyan Unkaras and their Wu supposed to be treated with reverence. Reverence NOT include being hit from behind and carried all over place like sack of wheat. Shampoo now pound sense into stupid Panda Man."

"Sham Pu, if you pound him it may be a while before we find out why Baka-sama brought us here." said the form on the floor.

"Forgive Shampoo mistress." Shampoo said bowing nearly horizontal to the form getting off the floor.

"That is all right, but it is Sensei."

"Yes, Sensei" again with a deep bow.

"Excuse me but just who are you people?" asked Nabiki as she tried to assert some control over the situation.

"Saotome Pai sorry for barging in but father knock sister Ranko out and we only trying to get her back."

"Saotome? As in Ranma and Genma Saotome?" asked Soun hopefully.

"Oh yes, Ranma's Pai's brother and Genma Pai's father though Ranma and Ranko tend to call him Baka-sama."

"Happy day" exclaimed Soun as he grabbed Pai in a bear hug. "The schools will finally be joined."

"Pai happy too but Pai like to know what is going on."

"I've got a feeling what ever it is father's up to his eyeballs in it." said the red head while glaring at the panda who was now waving a yet another sign 'Will someone PLEASE got me some hot water.' Shaking her head at the panda's antics the red head extended her hand. "Oh I'm Saotome Ran--urk." and suddenly Ranko found herself in a Soun bear hug. "You finally came. I was just..." Soun froze as he felt something that had no business on a male's chest.

"Dad newsflash here" Nabiki moved forward and poked the girl in the breast. "This is a girl." Soun nearly passed out but remembered the postcard said 'sisters' as in more than one. "You're not Ranma?"

"Of course not; Saotome Ranma is a man among men." the girl put her hands under her breasts "What man has two of these beauties on his chest? I'm his sister Saotome Ranko." 'Now what disaster of that baka father of ours are we going to have to deal with this time?' thought Ranko.

"Where is Ranma?"

"Ranma is like Parvati only a splash of hot water away. Pai show you" at which point the smaller girl literally shot into the kitchen. She then emerged with a kettle and soon was generating an aura in her hands "Pai need practice generating heat with Ki." Soon the kettle started steaming but before she could move the panda grabbed it and dumped the contents on its own head. Suddenly the panda was replaced with a balding middle aged man in a white gi.

"Soun old friend it's me, Genma." Soun did the only logical thing in such a situation and took a quick journey into the land of unconsciousness. "Pai didn't think it was that late. Poor man went right to sleep in the middle of conversation."

"Nice move, Oyaji. Now we are going to have to wait till he wakes back up."

Akane noticed that the small girl looked very little sad. "Hi I'm Akane. Want to be friends?"

Akane suddenly found herself face to face with more bubbly joy than she though possible. "Pai glad to be Akane's friend. Akane martial artist? Pai learning from brother and sister as well as Sham Pu."

"You know kempo?"

Pai frowned, "Pai not know as Pai learn Ranma and Ranko's school. It combination of many styles."

"Say what, while we wait for dad to wake back up why don't we all spar."

"Great, but let Pai go first. Ranma and I want to have her encounter and learn as many different styles as possible."

"Don't go easy on Pai even though Pai just learning." Pai pointed to the tattoo on her forehead "This mean Pai is Wu. Wu are immortal protectors of Sanjiyan Unkara. The harder it is for Pai the faster she learn to be better Wu."

In the dojo Akane noticed that Pai dodged the first dozen or so punches and kicks and then started to go for blocking moves. While her dodging was good Pai's blocks were poor and she quickly found an opening and soon Pai was on the mat. "Pai thank Akane for showing flaws in form. Akane will make good Sensei for Pai."

"I see certain places Ranma and I can improve as well. Sham Pu, it's your turn and to make things interesting let's see how your unarmed skills are."

Akane suddenly found herself quickly on the defensive and then on the floor as Shampoo caught her in the stomach with a stronger than expected punch.

"You are good. I'm glad you're a girl. I'd hate to loose to a boy."

Ranko's lips tightened just a bit. "Why is that?"

"Mainly because boys are perverts. An upper classman named Kuno made the totally baka announcement that whoever defeats me gets to date me. No matter how many times I beat them up they keep trying even though they have no chance of defeating me."

"Shampoo know how Akane feel. Shampoo have boy that drive her crazy and no matter how many times she pound him he keeps bothering Shampoo. Shampoo would not be surprised if he eventually shows up in Japan."

"Not all boys are perverts, Akane. Ranma isn't one for example."

"You are saying that because he is your brother."

"Not only because of that but he and I are very tightly connected. I know what he thinks and he knows what I think."

"Hmph."

Kasumi then entered. "Daddy is awake. Why don't you freshen up."

"But Ranko and I haven't sparred yet."

"Given what you just told us I think we should put that off until I can explain just how close Ranma and I are." Akane's protest died on her lips as she looked into Ranko's eyes. They were not soft and warm anymore but hard and cold boarding no argument. For a moment Akane could swear that it looked like there was an eyelid in the middle of Ranko's forehead. Akane slowly blinked and the eyelid seemed to disappear but the look didn't. "Ok, a nice warm bath will be a good change from the cold streams we've had to bathe in." Ranko said smiling at Kasumi.

Ranko, Pai, and Sham Pu got into the furo together. The warm water quickly changed Ranko into a dark haired young boy with the same tattoo on his forehead as Pai while Pai's face suddenly became a mask of intense intellect and a third eye opened where the tattoo had been. "So, Wu, what do you thing of Akane?"

"She will be perfect to teach Pai some more basics. There are some holes in her style that need a little work but all and all she will make an excellent addition to Pai's training."

"Shampoo think Ranma being too kind. Akane's skill poor."

"Poor by Joketsuzoku standards. But remember even though Pai learns skills even faster than I do she is still only a beginner. The only reason she can manipulate Ki and Chakra at the level she can is due to her race having unusually large reserves which are normally used to create magic spells or summon spirits. She still lacks in the many of the basics."

"Besides Pai was sensing something from Akane. There is more to her than what we have seen."

The door to the furo opened and in stepped Akane in her birthday suit who then got a good look at Ranma in his and then closed the door. "Well that went well." said Ranma.

"THERE IS A PERVERT IN THE BATHROOM WITH PAI AND SHAMPOO."

"You were saying, Wu." smirked the three eyed girl.

The three of them were greeted to the sight of Akane carrying a large bolder when they got downstairs. "I am Saotome Ranma and this is my sister Parvati. Sorry about this."

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Author's Note (Directory):

Wu 1/2 uses a lot of demons and spells from 3x3 eyes. Due to the nature of the Time Gate there are many aspects of alternate timelines down played in the Sailor Moon manga and anime that become important in this fanfic. I am also trying to stick to using the actual names given for the martial arts techniques given in Ranma 1/2. This directory will help give you an better mental image of what is going on and keep things straight.

**Magical Spells**

Cha-Lieh-Chong (Exploding Tearing Bug): Basically a magical grenade.

Chin-Kuu (Mirror Tick): As the name suggests this reflects attacks away. In the manga this seems to only work against ranged attacks.

Kuan-Yaa (Shining Fang): Looks like a laser beam that ends in a dragon's head.

Oh-Shye-Fu-Thrown-Lin-Lon: This is the only example of Ward magic that is actually given a name in the anime. When used it turns a small cavern into a lava pit.

Rei-Syou (Lightning Serpent): In the fanfic this summons a lightning bolt which wraps itself around the foe as it shocks them.

**Martial Arts**

Ryu (Schools) [_Italicized_ schools exist in the 'real world'

_Au Ch'i_: Chinese style that specializes in hiding and throwing weapons. Common amoung the Lin Kuei (Chinese ninja) the style is very incomplete and in all likelyhood was designed to combined with other styles. The cinematic version of this style fits Mu Sil's (Mouse's) Hidden Weapons Ryu like a glove as well as explaining some of his problems in both the manga and anime. For this reason in this fanfic Mu Sil is said to practice _Au Ch'i_.

Ganso Musabetsu Kakuto Ryu: The formal title of Anything Goes. Means 'creative indiscriminate martial arts school'

_Goju Ryu_: Taoist based karate style created in the 1920s by Chojun Miyagi. Noted for teaching powerful one-blow take down techniques.

_Ianijutsu (Iaido)_: this is the martial art skill of drawing and attacking at the same time and is also taught as part of Kunjutsu.

_Isshinryo_: Efficient karate like style created in 1954 by Tatsuo Shimabuku.

_Jeet Kune Do_: Bruce Lee's Ryu created in the 1960s. Interestingly this Ryu has foundations in Wing Chun, one of the oldest styles in China. Noted for teaching flexibility, unpredictability, and spontaneity. To this end many Sensei readily pull techniques from other styles giving it something akin to the core philosophy of Ganso Musabetsu Kakuto Ryu.

_Kuk Sool Won_: Korean Ryu created around 1945. Notable for teaching a mixture of armed and unarmed techniques.

_Kunjutsu/Kendo_: Kunjutsu is the combat form of Kendo. There are stories that in the hands of a really skilled Kunjutsu Dan the bokken was **more** deadly than the katana. By contrast Kendo is ill suited to real sword combat as it uses the lighter shinai, body armor, and showy but uneffective in real combat moves.

Okonomiyaki Kakuto: Formal name of Uyko's martial arts style

_Savate_: A French style originating from near the end of the 1700s that combines boxing techniques with high kicks and cane fighting.

_Uechi Ryu_: Variant of Karate taught by Kanbun Uechi. The style was given this name by the founder's son after the founder died in 1948.

Individual techniques

Bakusai Tenketsu: 'breaking point'. Varients of this technique are said to exist in the following 'real world' styles: _An Ch'i_, _Bando_, _Chin Na_, _Goju Ryu_, _Hsing-Yi Chuan_, _Jeet Kune Do _, _Karate _, _Kempo_, _Kuntao_, _Ninjutsu _, _Pancratium/Mu Tau_ (from ancient Rome), _Pentjak Silat _, _Shaolin Fung Fu_, _Tae Kwon Do _, _Uechi Ryu_ (taught in Japan in the 1920s), _Wudong_, and _Wushu Kung Fu_ (Communist China's state controled Ryu). Another varient appears in the Kung Fu movie Five Deadly Venoms as part of the Toad style.

Happo Go-en Satsu (Happy's five yen kill)/Happo Goju-en Satsu (Happy's fifty yen kill): Hinako Ninomiya's energy draining coin attacks. The fifty yen version does not require people to be angry to work.

Kachu Tenshin Amaguriken: 'Chestnuts roasting on an open fire'. A varient appears in the the Kung Fu movie Five Deadly Venoms as part of the Centipede style.

Moko Rakuchi-sei: grovel in front of a person

Painiyao Chuan: Mouse's most common attack. Better known as 'Fist of the White Swan'

Saotome Ryu Ogi - The Saotome School's ultimate maneuver (ie run away and hide until you come up with something better to do.)

**Otherworldly beings**

Sanjiyan Unkara (Divine Demon): In the anime (and more extensively the manga) these are the kami of the Hindu and several other religions. They can range from appearing nearly identical to humans (aside from their third eye) to part human part animal hybrids. Anubis and Ganesa are example of the later type of Sanjiyan Unkara.

Fei-Oh (Flying Jaws): Looks like a tadpole with oversized jaws with one eye in its mouth. It should be noted that these can be very protective of their Sanjiyan Unkara summoner and seem to enjoy the emotion of anger.

Hong-Nyang (Crimson Girl)/Ran-Pao-Pao (Wolf Rage Rage): There are the two forms of a single demon (and is one of the few demons in 3x3 eyes that _can_ change form). The Hong-Nyang form is that of a red headed five to six year old girl; the Ran-Pao-Pao form by contrast is that of an adult female standing between seven and eight feet tall, with four arms, and very pronounced fangs. In the manga and anime a whistle is used to cause the transformation though intense anger can also bring it about.

Huu-Yao-Chichiu (Binding Monster Spider): In this fanfic a large spider that can rapidly spin a capturing web.

Kiyatu: Unicorn like creature that can consume souls.

Ryo-ko (Dragon worm): a dragon like creature with a face resembling that of an European gargoyle. It wings can generate a sonic field rendering many weapons useless against it.

Shi-Yao-Chong (Devouring Fiend Worm): This feeds on magical energy and meat. Contrast to Tei-Chin-Chii-Chii-Chong

Shou-Rin (Running Scale): Think of an oversized skateboard with the tusks and tail of a wild boar and legs for wheels. Swims about as well as Akane can (ie not at all).

Takuhi (man bird): This resembles an European harpy and can change size from that of a parrot to that of a small plane. It should be noted that the Japanese harpy (ommoraki) has few human features and so is very difference in appearance from Takuhi.

Tei-Chin-Chii-Chii-Chong (Earth Vitality Gathering Spirit Bug): This restores spiritual or magical energy. In the fanfic it looks a little bit like an oversized tick.

Tou-Chao (Earth/Ground Claw): a large but fast three-clawed monster that generally is invisible though it briefly appears in the anime as looking like a cross between a crab and a spider.

Ya-Long: creature that very closely resembles an European dragon.

**Timelines**

Pai-Parvati Core: This is the 3x3 timeline as told in the manga with a few anime elements thrown in. This is the only series of the main three that actually uses dates. Professor Fujji dies in 1984, it takes Pia four years (1988) to get to Yakumo, and after losing her memory is found by Yakumo in 1992.

Ranma Core: This is the main Ranma timeline as told in the manga with a few elements of the anime _movies_ thrown in. None of the items or characters of the Anime _series_ exist in this timeline (ie no time traveling mirrors or Copycat Ken). On its own there is nothing to prevent this timeline from coexisting with the any of the other two Core timelines.

Crystal Tokyo Core: This is the _original_ timeline leading up to Crystal Tokyo. This timeline diverted from the ones told in the manga and anime when the Black Moon Family came back in time. In this timeline Uranus and Neptune die and stay dead (diverting from episode #111). Shortly afterward Snow Princess Kaguya shows up and without Uranus and Neptune to help them stop her (as in Sailor S Movie) the Scouts are unable to stop her from freezing the Earth for a century. Presumably Sailor Saturn later sacrifices herself to stop Pharaoh 90 but is not brought back. [This would explain their total absence from the initial version of Crystal Tokyo. With the Earth frozen there was no reason for the attacks by the Black Moon Circus or Sailor Galaxia (which has its own set of continuity headaches). Basically the timeline goes something like Queen Beryl, Makaiju (Doom Tree), 6 month lull, Pharaoh 90/Snow Princess Kaguya, exile of Doom Phantom and others to Nemesis, Crystal Tokyo. An important side note: in Japanese mythology the sun goddess Amaterasu gave her mortal son Jummi a sword, mirror, and jewel which became Sacred Regalia of the Emperor. Variants of the three items were what the Outer Sailor Scouts were looking for.

Axis: Your standard Nazi and their allies win WWII timeline. Needless to say the Inner Sailor Scouts (Valkyrie Warriors) in this timeline are anything but nice while the Outers come off in a far better light. The Inner's main foe the Disrupter takes the old adage 'the enemy of my enemy is my friend' to the extreme. That he is totally insane from grief doesn't help.

Queen Eclipse: Varient of the Crystal Tokyo timeline. With the exception of Sailor Saturn (who is horrablly disfigured) the Outers have been replaced by demons.

Saotome Deutsche Republik: In a possible future after volume 38 of the Ranma manga Shampoo discovers the Japanese attitude toward Burakumin and bribes a private investigator Kuno hired to purposely confuse Ranma's actual ancestor to that of a similarly named but unrelated grave digger to make her the only viable fiancee. Unknown to her Ranma has gotten a magic item that grant wishes which in a fit of emotional pain he asks to be taken anywhere anytime where he will be judged on his own merits. The result is he winds up in a little town in Austria and befriends a young abused boy whose brother Edmund he later saves. Via his martial arts training to the boy and other students the Great War ends differently. So say anymore would spoil surprises in the fanfic.


	2. Chap 02 Who's the Wu?

Ranma 1/2 is the creation of Rumiko Takahashi, 3x3 eyes (Sazan Eyes) is the creation of Yuzo Takada, Sailor Moon is the creation of Naoko Takeuchi. All are used without permission. This fan-fiction isn't intended for commercial use but is rather a tribute to Ranma 1/2, 3x3 Eyes, and Sailor Moon.

Chapter 2 Who's the Wu?

"So you were the girl?" Nabiki felt uneasy under the gaze of Parvati's three eyes. Nabiki could not shake the felling that she was being evaluated as one would a race horse, a pig, or some other animal.

"Well kind of."

"How should I explain this?" said Genma. Suddenly, Ranma got a quick trip to the koi pond out back.

The red headed girl from before got out of the pond only this time she had three eyes. "WHAT DID YOU DO THAT FOR?"

Genma looked a little nervous and went for a glass of water. One splash later out came a sign 'I'm only a cute panda.'

"Well at least now our mortal father is in a form more befitting his intelligence." said Parvati in a smug tone that Nabiki easily recognized as she herself had used it on more than one occasion, which made it all the more frightening.

"I take it your friends weren't originally like this?" Nabiki asked her father with some foreboding.

"No we weren't. This all due to a little encounter with Jusenkyo." said Ranko trying to keep the anger out of her voice.

"Indeed. Pai can tell it better than we can." the cold water Parvati splashed in her own face had an immediate effect. The cold expression and third eye were gone and the innocent expression of Pai was back.

**----Flashback---- **

Soon Pai would be in Japan where Yakumo would help her find the Ningen No Zou which would make her realize her dream of becoming human. As she passed on the outer edge of a valley filled with many pools she overheard some voices. "No customers is very bad if you fall in pools" "Come on Pops. Let's get on with it." As Pai approached the voices she saw two martial artists fighting each other on bamboo poles while a man dressed in an ill fitting military uniform below kept trying to get them to come down. Suddenly the tall one in the white robe was knocked into a pool. "Very bad customer, you fall into Spring of Drowned Panda and now take form of Panda." Pai watched as the Panda jumped up and backhanded the smaller martial artist off the pole into the air and it became clear he was going to land in the only covered pool in the valley. "Oh no customer going to fall into pool of Drowned Female Sanjiyan Unkara. Very bad very bad. I not ready to meet ancestors yet."

Startled as hearing her people's name Pai took a few steps closer but the bank on one pool was a little too soft and suddenly Pai found herself swimming. As she broke the surface she saw the face of the man in the uniform. "Customer fall into Pool of Drowned Young Girl." he said as he helped pull her from the pool. Pai felt different and realized it was due to her being human.

"Pai happy. Pai finally human."

"It very dangerous here. Other customer fall into pool of Drowned Female Sanjiyan Unkara and chase yet other customer. Will likely return and punish Guide for ancestors leaving in pool for 1000 years."

Pai was not listening to the Guide as she was so wrapped up in finally becoming human. "There is something strange about your aura." Pai turned around and looked into the face of a puzzled Sanjiyan Unkara; a moment later Pai saw a beam of light from the third eye that changed to a cone and then a round blob went up the beam back into the eye. Pai had a feeling as to what had just happened and a quick glance into a pool confirmed it - she was now Wu.

The Guide's reaction to this was immediate as he practically dove to the ground "Please Divine Demon forgive this unworthy one for being afraid like ancestors and leaving you in pool. I must warn you that with hot water you will return to being the boy who fell into the pool but cold water will return you to your rightful body."

"Is that true of pool Pai fall into?"

"Young girl not have to worry since she already young girl pool not affect her." said the Guide who had nervously stood.

Pai realized that she was only half human - hot water would return her to being Sanjiyan Unkara but she the pool had made her human enough to be made a Wu. It was all very confusing to Pai and now there was this feeling as if something wanted to break through but couldn't.

"Where can we get some hot water?" asked the new Sanjiyan.

"Come this way, Divine Demon." the Guide led the two girls into his hut and started heating some water. The Sanjiyan then looked at Pai "Who are you?"

"I am Pai. I was on way to Japan to have Yakumo help me obtain the Ningen No Zou so I could become human."

"Become human?"

"Yes Pai originally like you Sanjiyan Unkara and have many Oni friends but was looking for a way to become human."

"Here is the hot water Divine Demon." The red headed Sanjiyan was quickly replaced by a black haired human. Pai looked at the kettle and then poured it over her head.

Pai suddenly found herself an observer as a personality that called itself Parvati asserted control, 'Pai have another mind in body?' she thought.

"Well mortal you have been blessed to turn into a Sanjiyan Unkara. Even disorientated as she was she sensed Pai's knowledge as a former Sanjiyan and turned her into her Wu. I approve."

"Pai what's wrong with you?" asked Ranma.

"I am NOT Pai. I am Princess Parvati IV and until you fell into that pool I was the last of the Sanjiyan Unkara." said Parvati opening her third eye.

"Huh?"

"The Sanjiyan Unkara are known as the Divine Demons because we can command Oni to do our bidding and are regarded by many of you mortals as Kami." Parvati frowned slightly "The younger of us have two personalities and dread becoming decadent and callous like the older ones and so desire to become human." Ranma simply nodded not really grasping everything but decided it was best to keep quiet. "My falling into that pool has changed all that. I am still Sanjiyan Unkara but my Pai self is fully human and your Sanjiyan Unkara self's Wu. It is unlikely the Ningen No Zou would work in changing me to a human and it is a bad idea to mix magics unless you know exactly what you are doing."

"You say that Pai is my Wu. What is a Wu?"

"Pai is NOT _your_ Wu but that of your Sanjiyan self. But to answer your question as powerful as we are there are times when we need protection. To this end we create a Wu as a personal guardian; Since each Sanjiyan can only have one Wu we generally choose potential candidates very carefully selecting either the best or one with the greatest potential. A Wu is immune from being directly killed and is as immortal as its Sanjiyan creator."

Parvati looked at Ranma critically. "I saw the way you moved. Despite your youth you are a good fighter."

"Hey I'm training to be the best martial artist of my generation." exclaimed Ranma.

"Why settle for being the best of your generation. As my Wu not only would you have all the time in the world to learn but the spiritual magic I will teach you would further improve your abilities. I can make you the best martial artist in the entire history of this world. All it requires is you becoming my Wu. Unless you are afraid." Parvati finished smiling.

"Saotome Ranma isn't afraid of anything. I'll be your Wu."

"Fine," and then a beam of light came from Parvati's third eye.

**---end flashback--- **

"That how Pai become Ranko's Wu and Ranma become Parvati's Wu."

"But Ranko becomes Ranma with hot water, right?"

"Hot, not boiling." said Genma as he jumped up and ran around trying to cool down after getting drenched via another kettle Soun had gotten. "It's not that hot," chastised Ranma.

"Well then there is no problem. Kasumi is 19, Nabiki is 17, and Akane is 16. Choose one to be your fiancee."

"He wants Akane." said Nabiki with a nervous glance at Pai.

"Yes definitely Akane." said Kasumi.

"SAY WHAT!" Akane was now looking like she could chew nails.

"Well you don't like boys and he is a girl part of the time." reasoned Nabiki

"There is no way I am going to be engaged to that pervert."

Ranma gave Akane an annoyed look "Hold it, tomboy; what you mean that I am a pervert?"

"You were bathing with those other girls and saw me naked."

"Pai don't understand. What is problem?"

"Shampoo also not understand what problem is."

For a moment Akane's mouth just opened and closed like a fish out of water. "HOW CAN YOU NOT UNDERSTAND?!" she finally yelled, "Besides what about the tomboy crack."

"Pai believe it Ranma's way of being complementary. Father always keep saying girls are weepy, weak, helpless little things."

"Well they are." Ganma's insight to the nature of girls was rewarded by a quick trip into dreamland via Akane slamming the table into his head.

"Well he deserved that." said Ranma and Shampoo in unison. Then they looked at each other and laughed.

"I can't believe that I used to believe that junk."

"Shampoo understand. All Ranma had to go by was baka father until he meet Parvati and Shampoo. Still has habit of saying or doing wrong thing at wrong time."

"Well having you and Parvati pound me when I said something baka over the last couple of months helped." said Ranma as he rubbed the back of his head. "Not to mention Ranko tossing me around in my own mind."

"Besides Pai know Ranma not pervert. Pai found that without family name she not have much future as human so Ranma have father adopt Pai, Parvati, and Ranko into Saotome family. Ranma explain that this was in part due to duty but because Ranma love Pai. Pai then ask if Ranma love Pai then why not ask to make love to Pai. Ranma said it was perverted to make love to one's own sister. Since Ranma not ask sister Pai to make love Ranma not perverted." Pai smiled broadly at the end happy at her reasoning.

Ranma and Akane just looked at Pai. Akane was thinking that here was someone who could give her sister Kasumi a run for her money in a 'Miss Eternal Optimism' contest. Ranma made a mental note to himself to have Pai talk with Shampoo more as Pai was getting some really weird ideas about family.

Akane tried another tack with the seeming eternally bubbly Pai. "But he was in the bath with you and Shampoo naked."

"We always bathe together, easier to keep watch for any potential enemy. Beside as Parvati's Wu he supposed to keep near her." Akane decided to give up on the matter as it was obvious that she was making no headway with Pai and Parvati, Shampoo, and Ranko clearly didn't care either.

"Groan. What happened?"

Kasumi smiled softly, "You have to excuse Akane. She is really a nice girl. She is just a violent maniac."

Ranma started to giggle, then chuckle and finally laugh his head off. "Violent Maniac? Hardly. Now that crazy frog being in the trenchcoat that chased Pai and Ranko on the way to Japan was a prime example of a violent maniac. How many times did he disembowel you before Ranko took him out, Pai? Twice?"

"Actually only once. Remember second time he not only tore out Pai's intestines but tore off left arm and right leg as well. Pai think that fall under dismemberment."

Akane and Nabiki were now both turning a little green and even Kasumi's smile wavered slightly. Soun looked on in horror as Pai and Ranma compared details on just what the frog being had done to Pai in their two encounters.

Genma was now looking green enough that if it had been an actual color he could have passed for a certain character out of Dragonball Z. Ranma noticed that his father looked unwell. "Hey pops what's wrong? I mean you always said the life of a martial artist is full of peril."

"Peril is one thing. Facing crazed demons and enlisting the help of others as training partners is something else." Genma's voice was shaky and he now looked as if he had aged another 10 years.

"Aren't you the one who always said that a martial artist must be willing to give his life for the art?"

"True but that didn't include loosing one's manhood nor one's humanity." Genma eyes now had a distant far way look to them as if he was trying to determine where it had all went wrong.

"Look, Pops. I'll be the first to admit that when I first emerged from the pool I wasn't happy at being a girl. But after Ranko asserted herself I realized that she had certain advantages that would be vital to my training. Becoming a Sanjiyan Unkara even if it is a female one is the best thing that ever happened to me--Ranko has access to sparing partners far in excess of anything even the best human martial artist is capable of."

Ranma gestured to his forehead as he continued "And as Parvati's Wu I don't have to worry about how dangerous it is to spar with them and can focus even more on the art. It's not only the realization of your dream pops but surpasses it a thousand fold."

Genma's face was now ashen, "Because of my foolishness at not learning a word of Chinese my dream has turned into a nightmare."

Ranma simply shook his head. "You really don't understand, Pops."

Genma looked at his son with a totally lost look in his eyes "I'm not sure I want to understand."

"Perhaps but there is something I do understand. Pai, you are going to have to train with Sham Pu some more and if she is willing to teach you, Akane as well."

"You are still having problems on judging how much force to use on mortal opponents and as a result you don't go for any attacks at all. Sham Pu and Akane as mortals will be best suited to breaking you of this habit."

"Pai understand. By becoming better martial artist Pai become better Wu."

"Well let us first get some sleep and be well rested for the next day."

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[Author's note: Thanks to Jusenkyo Pai no longer needs the Ningen No Zou to become human and Parvati is not willing to risk Jusenkyo magic messing with what can be even under normal conditions a risky endeavor (previous humanization attempts have resulted in horrorable physical transformations and/or mental instability including insanity) Don't worry though Parvati will remember another power of the Ningen No Zou that will make contacting Yakumo vital.


	3. Chap 03 School Daze

Ranma 1/2 is the creation of Rumiko Takahashi, 3x3 eyes (Sazan Eyes) is the creation of Yuzo Takada, Sailor Moon is the creation of Naoko Takeuchi. All are used without permission. This fan-fiction isn't intended for commercial use but is rather a tribute to Ranma 1/2, 3X3 Eyes, and Sailor Moon.

Chapter 3 School Daze

"School?" said Ranma and Parvati in unison.

"Yes, you should both attend school."

"Genma does have a point. It will give us the opportunity to improve our social skills. Right now if there was a Anything Goes School of social etiquette we could at best defeat a brain damaged swamp rat."

"What you mean by that?" spouted an angry Ranma.

"Neither of us has had any really meaningful relationship with humans but things have changed to where we need improve that. I would add that Sham Pu needs better insight to your culture. All three of us going to school is a step in the right direction in achieving all these goals."

"So why do I have this feeling that this idea ranks right up there with the Neko-ken?" mumbled Ranma to himself.

Nabiki had considered charging Ranma, Parvati, and Shampoo for their supplies but thought better of it. She remembered when Pai had called forth a bird demon she called Takuhi and sent him to the backyard as a watchdog. Getting on the bad side of someone who controlled a bird demon was definitely not healthy; especially when you knew next to nothing about them and one of their personalities seemed as ruthless as yourself. Nabiki rubbed her head when she got to school, at least with Ranma/Ranko one knew who you were dealing with just by looking; Pai/Parvati was a totally different situation. Until she opened her mouth or you got a good look at her forehead you didn't know _who_ you were dealing with. At least she had a new category for the Akane dating horde betting pool - likelihood of a Divine Demon showing up. She just hoped she and the school survived the encounter.

Meanwhile Akane, Ranma, Parvati, and Shampoo were still on their way to school.

Akane looked up at Ranma, Parvati, and Shampoo who were walking up on the fence.

"What are you three doing?"

"Balance practice." they said nearly as one.

"One of few good ideas Panda Man have. Turn everything into practice."

"Even a blind man can hit a target once in a while." came the cold response of Parvati.

Akane was going to tell Parvati and Shampoo that they were giving everybody a good view of their panties but then she remembered about them being naked in front of Ranma and figured they didn't care about the minor show they were given any nearby boy.

Parvati noticed a bunch of boys in the distance some of them in sports gear. "I take it that is the dating horde."

Ranma cocked his head to the side "Ranko says this is Akane's fight. We only get involved if she asks us to."

"I can handle this myself. Grrr I HATE boys."

"Shampoo see this and still not believe it."

"Will wonders never cease. There are mortals actually dumber than our father." Parvati then focused on the fight and saw things that troubled her.

As Akane pounded the last boy into the ground Parvati jumped to beside her, "Akane this needs to stop. Fighting these inferior foes every day is **not** challenging you. In fact if anything it is degrading your skill by allowing you to fall into a pattern."

"What a boorish lot." said a boy in a stylized kimono.

"Hello upper classman Kuno."

"So this is the pompous jerk who is degrading your skill with his idiotic announcement." Akane saw what looked like an eyelid on Parvati's forehead and realized that she was on the verge of opening her third eye.

"Who is this fair tigress before me?"

"Someone who is not impressed by you." Parvati said her voice getting hard.

"How could you not be impressed by Kuno the Blue Thunder of Furinkan?"

"Because I Princess Parvati IV of the Saotome clan have seen things beyond the pathetic imaginings of your feeble mortal mind." Parvati said in very superior tone.

"Ah I understand I much show my worthiness by defeating you."

Parvati looked at Akane "Is this baka mortal for real?"

"Defend yourself." Akane knew that given Pai's skill there was no way Parvati could defeat Kuno. In the meanwhile Ranma and Shampoo had run up beside Akane. "Stay out of this you two, I want to test my skills." hissed Parvati.

"Leave her alone, Kuno. Your fight is with me." protested Akane.

"Ah sweet Akane, don't worry after I defeat this tigress I shall still challenge you for the Blue Thunder is more than any one woman can handle." Kuno then started in with his bokken. Parvati tried to block Kuno's weapon but while faster than Pai her movements were even sloppier than Pai's. As a result Kuno's weapon went totally through her blocks several times forming welts and bruises each time it hit some part of her body. Akane couldn't stand it anymore and proceeded to pound Kuno into the ground.

"Parvati, what did you think you were doing?" growled Ranma "Your skill was nowhere near enough to handle that idiot."

"True but I wanted to see just how bad my skill was compared to Pai's, Sensei."

Ranma started rubbing his temples with one hand "And the answer to that question is?" Akane watched in wonder as she could literally see the welts and bruises heal before her eyes.

Parvati looked at Ranma, "My skill seems to be worse than Pai's, Sensei."

Ranma then kelt down before Kuno and soon produced a marker from his backpack and drew something on his forehead. "Since the school baka is out cold I say we go to our class room."

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Nabiki looked down at Kuno and thanked the Kami that he hadn't got Parvati angry enough to summon Takuhi. Listening to tales of dismemberment was bad enough she had no desire to see the act first hand. "Come on, Kuno baby, wake up."

"Uh what a fierce tigress. A spirit worthy of the Blue Thunder."

"LISTEN, Kuno, there are some things you should know about Parvati."

Kuno looked at Nabiki and his hand automatically went to his wallet.

"Forget that, Kuno. This information is so important that it's free."

Kuno stopped in mid motion looking at Nabiki as if she had grown another head.

"Kuno, Parvati isn't even human. She has oni for friends and the last thing I want is to see one of those things tear you apart." 'Especially as it would really ruin my major source of income,' thought Nabiki.

"Ney such a vision of divine beauty would not associate with oni."

"Divine is right, as in Divine Demon. Look, Kuno, Parvati's brother Ranma is engaged to Akane and..."

"Some peasant is engaged to the fair Akane? I the Blue Thunder will not allow this travesty." Soon Kuno was on his way to Akane's homeroom with Nabiki in pursuit.

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Meanwhile the teacher in Akane's homeroom had just expressed his disbelief at Parvati's explanation as to where Pai and Ranko were. Parvati was not handling this reaction well and was getting angry as her frustration grew.

"An angry martial artist is a sloppy martial artist." said Parvati in a clear voice and when she raised her face to meet the teacher's gaze the class gasped as her third eye was open. "There are more things in the heavens, earth, and the hells than are dreamt of in your philosophy." said Parvati in a cold icy tone.

Parvati expression dropped as the teacher backed up a little with an expression of fear on his face. "The duty of a martial artist is to protect the weak." she said as her third eye closed. "I'm a martial artist not a monster." Parvati collapsed back in her seat and started crying. Ranma was quickly beside her trying to comfort her. Shampoo numbly walked up to the desk. "Shampoo not understand, Sanjiyan Unkara great warriors."

"Great warriors?! We were pathetic. When my fiancé Kaiyanwang went power mad we fought him for all the good it did. The result was only one remaining Sanjiyan Unkara who wanted to become human. Three hundred years of running from who and what she was because she was afraid that she turn out just like her fiancé."

"I shall not allow this." Kuno's mission of divine justice was forgotten as he saw a divine beauty crying her eyes out. "What troubles thee my goddess of beauty?"

"I'm a martial artist not a goddess, though a Hindu would say otherwise." Parvati looked up and chucked a little, "Of course what else could one expect from a person with the word 'baka' written on their forehead."

"What are you talking about my gracious one?"

"See for yourself, Kuno," Nabiki held a mirror so Kuno could see the mark.

"Who defaced the grand features of the Blue Thunder?"

"That would be me, Saotome Ranma, Blue Baka."

"You are the peasant who is engaged to Akane. Defend yourself from my noble wrath."

"Let's take this outside" said Ranma as he dashed though a nearby open window.

"I follow."

Akane was staring after the two for a while before finding her voice. "We're on the third floor!"

"Even before he was my Wu Ranma could handle a fall that high. Oh, there seems to be a pool down there. Looks like the Blue Thunder is about to meet Ranko. Correction looks like he needs saving by Ranko."

'Great, I have to save this idiot from drowning,' thought Ranko. In his thrashing Kuno grabbed one of Ranko's breasts with predictable results.

"PERVERT!" Kuno didn't have to worry about drowning as Ranko had propelled him clear of the pool and right into a nearby tree.

After getting out of the pool Ranko pulled off her wet shirt to better wring it out and a good proportion of the male student body got nosebleeds due to the fact Ranko had no bra on.

"Ranko, what are you doing?"

"What's it look like I'm doing, Akane? I'm wringing out my shirt."

"You don't have a bra on."

"And this is a problem how? Remember I have to keep my brother's image in mind in regards to clothing."

Now everyone outside was either asking about the engagement or talking about the transformation. Akane's left eye now started to twitch. Being engaged to a perverted boy was bad enough but that he changed into a totally clueless girl was worse. But Akane had to admit that she liked Ranko and Pai and she didn't really have many true friends.

Meanwhile Nabiki made a note to control the rumor mill until she could learn more about Sanjiyan Unkara. Parvati seemed to have even wilder mood swings than her sister Akane did and with the beings at her beck and call that spelled danger. She also wondered about that comment that a Hindu would consider her a goddess. 'Time to do a little library research,' she thought.

Ranko finally put her top back on allowing the males to finally recover. Unfortunately the time this all took had allowed Kuno to recover enough to fall out of his tree. (Though there would be those who would argue Kuno had fallen out of his tree years ago.) "Ah who is this vision of beauty before me?"

Ranko looked at the Kendoist and shook her head. "Do you hit on every girl that tickles your fancy, or you trying to meet some quota?"

"Ah pigtailed goddess how can I be not smitten by you?"

"Try pigtailed Sanjiyan Unkara and you'd be right."

"Sanjiyan Unkara? What a strange name."

"No stranger than a would be samurai who seems to have a libido rivaling a sex demon in a convent."

"The Blue Thunder will prove his manhood by defeating you in battle."

"The Blue Thunder will prove his stupidity by getting his clock cleaned." At which point Ranko sent Kuno skyward with a well placed kick in an area that made every male in earshot cringe. "Hmmm, didn't know a male's voice could go that high."

"Bravo, sister that put the foolish mortal in his place and hopeful prevented him from breeding." chuckled Parvati.

"Well at least he won't be walking right for a while."

"Think you could teach that to Akane? She needs some new attacks to deal with that dating horde." The members of the dating horde cringed at the idea of Akane doing that to them.

"All things in their own time and place. Your and Pai's training comes first because you two are the least skilled. But the four of us will train tonight so we can get a better idea on where we are to each other skill wise."

Ranko went back into the school and poured some hot water on her head. Ranma ran his hand through his black hair and walked back to the classroom. The teacher stared for a few minutes finally shaking his head and proceeded to teach the class again. Ranma took notes while Ranko considered some facts.

The primary fact was that thanks to their father their middle school grades were to put it mildly horrid. Since Pai and Parvati had basically wandered around China for about 300 years their schooling was even worse. Sham Pu's education was in things her culture considered important which in likelihood were not the same things a modern culture like Japan considered important. The fact that none of them taken the normally required entrance exam but had been allowed to attend this high school anyway didn't speak too highly of Furinkan High School. Ranko mentally frowned as the line of logic combined with the meeting Kuno indicated that Furinkan High School was in all likelihood near the bottom of the barrel in terms of education quality.

Learning Sanjiyan Unkara magic had made it painfully clear to both Ranko and Ranma that brains as well as brawn were required for either of them to properly perform their duties as Sanjiyan Unkara and Wu respectively. Getting a quality education out of this school was going to be a challenge and if there was one thing that motivated both of them it was a challenge.

Finally the bell rang and the Tannin/English teacher left muttering something. Ranma glanced over at Parvati who had her normal cold superior expression on her face and wondered if Furinkan High School was up to handling either of his sisters.

"Akane, how did you get engaged to a boy than changes into a girl?" asked a girl with light brown hair.

Akane frowned, "Well, Sayuri, it seems our fathers engaged us before we were born. And as Parvati tried to explain strictly speaking Ranma doesn't change into a girl; he and Ranko just happen to share the same body."

"Sounds more like an act so he can peek." said Sayuri with disgust.

Akane shook her head, "Parvati and Pai are the same way; their personalities are like night and day. According to Pai's account of how they met that is normal for a Sanjiyan Unkara."

Sayuri blinked, "It is normal for these Sanjiyan Unkara have two personalizes? You mean the whole race is nuts?!"

"No, our whole race is _not_ nuts," said Parvati her voice tinged with anger her third eye opening up again. "Arrogant, at times conceited I will grant you but not nuts." Parvati then got a smirk on her face folding her arms, "Now our father on the other hand is a totally different matter. Stumbling around China with next to no knowledge of the language or customs of any of the people you may meet. Now _that_ is nuts." grumbled Parvati

Ranma shook his head, "No, that is simply Pops being stupid. Though with Pops, stupid usually does equal crazy."

Parvati shrugged her shoulders, "I heard rumors about methods just as crazy in other martial art Ryu so that doesn't bother me. It is the way he goes about things as well as his stubbornness that annoys me no end. Even after seeing all the power and skill Ranko, Pai, Sham Pu, and myself have he _still_ think girls and women are weak weepy little things." Parvati said shaking her head in annoyance.

"Don't forget that Pops was teaching me that same drivel." commented Ranma.

Parvati chuckled, "True, Ranma, but unlike our father when faced with facts to the contrary you eventually recognized those ideas for the drivel they were."

Ranma tapped his head, "It's kind of hard to hold to that idea when you got your sister in your own head showing that that idea is wrong. Not to mention you and Sham Pu on the outside reinforcing that fact."

"Parvati, you said during your introduction that you were 300 years old. Just how long do your people live?" asked a girl with light brown hair.

Parvati smiled a sad smile "My people are not only immortal but we are eternally young. One of the reasons my sister Pai wanted to become human was she did not want a life of seeing everyone around her grow old and die." Parvati frowned a little bit looking at Ranma, "Until Jusenkyo I thought that I would either fade from existence or merge with my Pai personality when Pai became human. Now I am not so sure. My fiancé Kaiyanwang went powermad right after a failed attempt in using the Ningen No Zou to become human and his resulting insanity wiped out my people. Perhaps the humanization process of Ningen No Zou is itself flawed and Pai and I had been on a 300 year fool's search."

By this time the next teacher had entered the room and then the period bell rung. After staring at Parvati for a few seconds the teacher shook her head, shrugged her shoulders, and then got to the matter of teaching the subject.

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Ever since meeting Ranma Parvati had been trying to push herself physically but stamina related things that were hard for Pai to achieve Parvati found ridiculously easy. The flip side to that was Pai picked up martial arts skills much faster than Parvati did which annoyed Parvati no end. She just could not understand why she was having so many problems; she heard the same things Pai did and Pai practiced enough that their shared body should have "automatically" responded to Parvati's efforts. However the actual result generally was as the contest with Kuno had demonstrated not even close to Parvati's high personal standards. Parvati however had long learned from her brother Ranma that focusing her passions into overcoming a challenge like this tended to have fast results.

Already Parvati noted her strength and stamina had dramatically increased from the time before she met Ranma. Spells that would have knocked her out cold for days were barely fatiguing anymore. The four of them had agreed that barring special circumstance that each Sanjiyan Unkara-Wu pair (Ranko-Pai, Parvati-Ranma) would interact with the world while their other personalities would simply observe or go over the previous day's events when they slept. Parvati had picked up her brother Ranma's habit of pushing himself to new levels of endurance. The main problem with that was in her Sanjiyan Unkara form Parvati's Ki and Chakra reserves were now way above what even a well trained mortal martial artist could achieve. That was why the Phys-Ed coach was now staring at his stopwatch in total disbelief.

"Akane, is that what your Ryu can achieve?" Sayuri asked in awe of just how fast Parvati had moved.

Ranma overhearing the question shook his head, "No, it isn't. Sanjiyan Unkara have much higher Chakra and Ki reserves than mortal humans. Parvati and Ranko can do things that normally would take someone of 5th or higher Dan to do even though their actual skill is nowhere near that."

"Akane lucky, Sanjiyan Unkara don't let just anyone train with them," Sham Pu smiled "Shampoo like training with Sanjiyan Unkara as very challenging to keep up."

Ranma smiled a little, "We Wu are no slouches either. We can cast spells long after a Sanjiyan Unkara is exhausted so we must have even larger reserves of Ki and Chakra." Ranma then scowled muttering to himself, "Though I haven't figured out how to access it for anything _but_ spells."

Akane frowned at the speed Parvati had just demonstrated, "I don't get it, how could Kuno have hit her if she was that fast?"

"Raw power not make one skilled." said Sham Pu.

"The problem Akane is that Sanjiyan Unkara are not trained to use their huge Ki and Chakra reserves for anything but spell casting." commented Ranma as he looked at Akane and smiled, "If I wasn't a Wu Parvati would have killed me with some of her blows; she has the raw power but not enough skill to properly control it." Ranma then smiled broadly. "That is why I want you to join us tonight in our training. I sense that you have a similar unfulfilled potential, just what training with Parvati will help you realize."

As the end of gym class Parvati went into the shower room and got an unexpected blast of cold water. Pai frowned using her Ki to warm up the water until the hot water came through the pipes. "That was annoying," commented Parvati shaking her head. It had been little things like this that had forced Parvati and Pai to come closer together; you couldn't become totally disorientated in the midst of a battle simply because you got splashed by warm or cold water. Parvati frowned as she dressed. Over the last 300 years she and Pai had become distant to the point that Pai had all but forgotten she even existed while she had not paid that much attention to what Pai was doing.

Now the Pool of Drowned Girl changed all that; Parvati was finding out her Pai persona like Ranma had some serious problems. Parvati shrugged her shoulders. If Ranko could put up with Ranma then she could put up with Pai. At least the training tonight might prove interesting.

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[Author's note: you have no doubt noticed that Parvati alternatively calls Ranma by name, Sensei, or Wu. This reflects the very complex relationship they have. When Parvati calls Ranma by name she is considering him her equal, when she called him Wu she is asserting that she is the master and he the pupil and Sensei indicates the exact opposite.

Also unlike US schools attendance in Japanese schools is only mandatory through middle school (9th grade) though 96 go on to high school. As with colleges students **must** take a test to enter high school; performance in middle school sets the list of possible schools and this combined with the test results determines which school the student can attend.


	4. Chap 04 Lost and Found

Ranma 1/2 is the creation of Rumiko Takahashi, 3x3 eyes (Sazan Eyes) is the creation of Yuzo Takada, Sailor Moon is the creation of Naoko Takeuchi. All are used without permission. This fan-fiction isn't intended for commercial use but is rather a tribute to Ranma 1/2, 3X3 Eyes, and Sailor Moon.

Chapter 4 Lost and Found

Akane, Ranma, Parvati, and Shampoo were well rested though sore from the training they had done the previous night and were having a lively talk on the way to school.

"Shampoo impressed that Akane can form battle aura - that something not even Shampoo can do."

"Well I am the best martial artist in Nerima." commented Akane proudly.

"Not quite, as bad as he is that Kuno baffoon is better." commented Parvati.

"What?! I defeat that idiot everyday."

"Think he believes in the same idiotic drivel our father used to shove into my head?" asked Ranma.

"I'm not sure, but I could feel from the blows he was landing he wasn't putting any real force into them. That meant he had good control on where and how hard he could strike. Enough to exploit the flaws in Akane's style I spotted last night."

"SAOTOME DEFEND YOURSELF YOU COWARD!" said a young boy in a bandana carrying a huge umbrella as he landed in front of the group.

"Huh?" said Ranma and Parvati.

"BECAUSE OF YOU I HAVE SEEN HELL!" yelled the boy as he stated pulling off bandanas and throwing them at Ranma.

"Hey. What. is. your. problem?" asked Ranma as he dodged the rain of bandanas.

"Just who do you think you are, MORTAL?" came a voice as cold as death itself.

Ranma and the boy suddenly stopped and turned to face Parvati. "Honored one." gasped Sham Pu.

Parvati had a bandana through her right shoulder, another through her left leg, and third through her right hand. "Just what kind of pathetic martial artist are you to endanger innocent bystanders?" said Parvati as she pulled the blood soaked bandana from her hand and slapped the boy in the face with it. "Don't worry Shampoo I'm fine, just very angry. This fool mortal is mine to deal with," said Parvati as she slapped the bandana in the boy's empty hand.

"I repeat the question, MORTAL," intoned Parvati as she pulled out the bandana in her leg and slapped it into the boy's hand, "just who do you think you are?"

"Hibiki Ryoga", replied the boy weakly staring as the girl pulled the third bandana from her shoulder and slapped it into his now totally blood soaked hand.

"Well Hibiki-san will you please tell me exactly why are you attacking my brother and why are you being so sloppy about it."

"He ran out on me in a dual of honor."

Parvati turned to Ranma, "Wu, explain."

"Hold on a moment. Hibiki Ryoga... Now I remember. At the last boy's school I was at they had us fight over the last piece of bread. Ryoga had a horrible sense of direction and so would arrive for lunch just as this happened. I would get the bread and share it with him. Later I would lead me to and from school. After several months he challenged me to a duel of honor in the back of his house; Pops and I waited three days for him to show up. At the end of the third day Pops got tired of waiting and knocked me out, next thing I knew I was in another part of Japan."

"Our father has a knack for creating messes we have to clean up doesn't he?" sighed Parvati who than gave Ryoga a piecing gaze, "That explains why you are here but it does NOT explain your pathetic lack of control, MORTAL."

"It's a matter of honor." stammered Ryoga.

"It is also the duty of a martial artist to be in control at all times. Look at the type of power I have access to. Fey-Oh!" Suddenly something that looked like a giant flying tadpole with its eye within its mouth was overhead.

"This is a Flying Jaw. It along with my other Oni friends could lay waste to an entire city if I did not keep tight control over my emotions. I used to think that because I was Sanjiyan Unkara I was better than mortals and could do as I pleased but now as a martial artist it is my duty to protect mortals that cannot protect themselves. SO WHY ARE YOU ENDANGERING MORTALS WITH YOUR THOUGHTLESS ACTIONS?" bellowed Parvati in Ryoga's face as her third eye opened up.

Ryoga faced with a monster straight out of a nightmare and a girl with three eyes yelling at him did the reasonable thing - he dropped his umbrella and started babbling like an idiot.

Parvati sighed again and bent down to pick the umbrella. "What is this thing made of?!" stammered Parvati as she fruitlessly tried to lift the umbrella. Suddenly a red battle aura enveloped Parvati. Akane and Shampoo both gasped as the heat from the aura was like that of a blast furnace. Parvati closed her eyes and the aura quickly disappeared and she easily lifted the umbrella by its handle. Opening her eyes she smiled at Ryoga "I believe this is yours." she said as she pushed the umbrella into Ryoga's hand. Now Ryoga's babbling actually developed a pattern to it "pleasedontkillmeidontwanttodieplesedontkillmeidontwanttodie."

"Parvati how did you do that and what's wrong with Ryoga?" asked Ranma his voice showing both concern and wonder.

"Simple really I don't know how to regularly use ki to increase my speed or strength like you and Akane can so I created a battle aura and pulled the energy inside me. I then used that energy to increase my strength." Parvati turned to Ranma and said "Crudely effective but too slow. I need better training in using Ki to improve my abilities, Sensei."

"No wonder Ryoga's babbling. Your three eyes are like three hot coals right now. It's like staring into the face of a full blown royally pissed off demon." commented Ranma as he smiled slightly.

"That is a fair assessment of my feelings right now, Ranma." said Parvati as her hand tightened on the umbrella. Ryoga's babbling was interrupted by the sound of crunching metal. Parvati and Ryoga both looked at the handle of the umbrella which had been crushed like a piece of soft clay.

"Oops. Looks like this technique needs a great deal of refinement. I don't know my own strength when using it. That's no good." Parvati said sheepishly.

"Doesn't know her own strength, he he. Mamma." said Ryoga as he passed out.

Parvati fell to her knees facing Ranma "How may this unworthy one atone for her actions, Sensei?"

"Honored one, what are you doing?" stammered Shampoo.

"I lost control." said Parvati as tears started to pour out of her eyes.

"Parvati, stop crying." said Ranma as he knelt down. "You took what you knew and created a new technique."

"What if I had tried to hit him? Without control I could have killed him." said Parvati who was now crying like crazy while Ranma pulled her to her feet.

"Shampoo think you worry too much. You not hit stupid umbrella boy. He pass out on his own."

"Parvati, listen to me. You think the first time Shampoo, Akane, or I tried to do a technique it worked flawlessly? If there was one thing that our stupid father was right about it was that the path of a martial artist is full of peril. No technique is mastered overnight not even by a Sanjiyan Unkara, not even by me." Ranma paused letting his words sink in, "Your abilities to tap into the power of the beast and demon worlds allows you to access Ki and Chakra at a level that normally take years if not decades of martial arts training to achieve. The problem is because of that you don't have the training on how to properly USE that power in martial arts."

"Shampoo think she understand. It would be like Shampoo have all the power of an Elder but no knowledge on how or when to use it."

Ranma didn't know what powers an 'Elder' had but decided agreeing with Sham Pu was the best course to calming down Parvati. "Exactly. Just as you need to know the basics of a martial artist I need to learn the basics of being a Wu and Ranko the basics of being a Sanjiyan Unkara. You have to crawl before you can walk, walk before you can run."

"I understand, Sensei." said Parvati bowing deeply wiping the tears from her eyes.

"Ok pick up Ryoga, and let's get to class."

"Shampoo not understand; why not leave stupid umbrella boy here?"

"Because when he woke up, he'd then go looking for me and with the way he gets lost likely wander into who knows what trouble." said Ranma.

"Come on its not like he'd wander to China and take a plop in one of the pools." joked Parvati.

Ranma suddenly got a weird look on his face. "Oh no. When I was running around after my transformation trying to pound Oyaji I ran into someone or something on the edge of Jusenkyo. Thinking back it just might have been him."

"You think he might have been cursed?" asked Akane.

"One way to find out." said Parvati as she generated cold Ki forming a small cloud of fog between her hands. "There should be enough cold water in this fog to trigger any transformation." as she knelt over the boy pushing the fog cloud near his face. The moment the cloud touched his face Ryoga disappeared. "Hmm whatever he turns into it's smaller than an adult human. Well look at that." pulling a sleeping young girl with red hair from the clothes.

"It a young girl?" said Shampoo.

"No its not, her aura... its not even human."

"Very good, Wu; what else can you sense?"

"Her aura is wolf like but not of this reality. If I had to guess with my limited knowledge of the spirit world I'd say she is in reality the Hong-Nyang form of a Ran-Pao-Pao."

"Bravo. I was right in choosing you as my Wu. Your progress has exceeded my wildest expectations."

"I was right?!" asked a startled Ranma. "But it's my fault he turns into this because I let my anger distract me from my surroundings. Given Ryoga was about as level headed as he was about finding his way out of a room with one door, I image he tends to transform into Ran-Pao-Pao often. An engaged Ran-Pao-Pao would make this little display look mild by comparison."

"All the more reason to take him inside with us uh, Wu?"

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Meanwhile Nabiki was doing some research in the school's library on Hindu beliefs. "What's this?" she wondered out loud. "Parvati is listed as the name of a Hindu goddess?! Wife of Siva known for her pleasant demeanor to her friends and ruthlessness actions toward her enemies. Some legends have her actions as the reason Siva has three eyes?!" Nabiki closed the book with some dread. The reference to Siva having three eyes seemed to indicate the Sanjiyan Unkara _were_ the Hindu gods. Powerful gods that at times thought nothing of crushing humans like bugs. 'Time to find Parvati and see if I am right,' thought Nabiki.

Nabiki found Parvati, Ranma, Shampoo, and her sister Akane talking to a young red headed girl in clothes way too big for her. The Tennin-English teacher was just sitting there staring at the scene before him seemingly in a state of shock. "Are you saying its Ranma's fault that I change into this this THING?" asked the girl.

"A Ran-Pao-Pao is _not_ a _thing_, it is powerful demon and all the more reason for you to learn control." said Parvati in a cold tone. Nabiki noticed the teacher leaned back in his chair at the word 'demon' and looked ready to bolt for the door.

"Somehow I think listening to Siva's wife is in your best interest," said Nabiki in a calm voice that hid the fact she was scared silly.

Parvati looked at Nabiki and then laughed. "Akane, your sister has a sharp mind worthy of a Sanjiyan Unkara. Kaiyanwang is actually a title, my fiancé's real name was indeed Siva." Then Parvati's face took on a cold hard look to it "I still remember that statement he made while my people died fighting him 'Behold I have become Death the destroyer of worlds.'"

"That is the same phase Robert Oppenheimer used when the first atomic bomb exploded," said Nabiki nervously. The teacher had now turned pale and took out some paper and a pen and started composing his will.

"Interesting, I must find out more about this mortal Oppenheimer and this thing called an atomic bomb. But first I need to address this baka of a martial artist."

The young red headed girl looked at Parvati as she started waving a finger in front of her. "You will learn to control yourself or I will send you away."

"Send me away?"

"To the realm of Oni you get your friends from?" asked Nabiki with dread.

Parvati looked at Nabiki again, "Such a sharp mind, it doesn't deserve to be limited to the pathetic 80 years that you humans have." Parvati then gestured forming her staff. She then opened it and a mouse sized Takuhi came out. "Takuhi I have a task for you." Parvati then whispered something into the harpy like creature's ear at which point it dashed out the window.

"Parvati you didn't just do something on par with our father have you?"

"Just because I will soon have a resource doesn't mean I will use it. But I do want the option available." Parvati stated while Ranma shook his head.

"I'll behave," said the girl nervously.

"Fine let's get you some hot water and go over the basics on being a Ran-Pao-Pao."

Nabiki quietly slid down into an empty seat as what was supposed to be English class turned into Spirit World 101. Everybody also listened in as it was not everyday you had a goddess describe the spirit world in detail. Nabiki glanced over at the English teacher as he continued to write his will with a kind of glazed expression on his face. Not everyone was up to handling the weirdness level of Nerima which is why Furinkan High School had the highest teacher turn over rate of any school not only in Tokyo but Japan. There was even a rumor that the last official from the Ministry of Education to visit the school some 10 years ago had to carted away in a straitjacket by the end of the day. The presence of a Sanjiyan Unkara simply had made Nerima's weirdness factor harder to ignore. Nabiki then thought of something and tentatively raised her hand.

Parvati noticed the gesture and smiled, "Nabiki, I believe you have a question."

Nabiki nodded, "Yes, Your tribe was regarded as Kami by the Hindus but what of other pantheons around the world?"

Parvati's smile dropped and her expression became puzzled, "I know from Ranma about some of the stories of your Kami but you mean there are stories of _other_ pantheons?"

Nabiki nodded smiling slightly, 'Well at least I now know that the Sanjiyan Unkara are not all knowing any more than they are all powerful.' she thought to herself. "Yes, like the Japanese, the Greeks, Romans, Vikings, and Chinese all had pantheons of Kami. If your tribe was not the basis for those pantheons then who was?"

Parvati frowned a little bit, "I am beginning to see just how limited our knowledge of the world really was. In the 300 years Pai and I wandered China we never heard about anything other than the Hindu Pantheons." Parvati looked up at Ranma "It wasn't until we met Ranma that we learned of a mythology as rich and detailed as what the Hindus had woven for our tribe." Parvati then smiled, "I see you have come to the same conclusion I did about the Japanese pantheon; they were and quite likely are a tribe of Sanjiyan Unkara we didn't know about."

Nabiki blinked as the ramifications of Parvati's statement dawned on her. "You mean that your people can interbreed with ours?"

Parvati cocked her head to the side and smiled "Yes though most did use the Ningen No Zou to become human or made their mates Wu. Mortals have such brief lives." Parvati then frowned, "I vaguely remember my mother telling me of a tribe of people who had problems giving birth and would train extensively so they would be good potential Wu, but that was 300 years ago. They have by no doubt died off by now."

Nabiki nodded quietly considering the idea that the supreme goddess of Japan, Omikami Amaterasu, might have been a Sanjiyan Unkara. Where was she and her fellow kami? Was her son Jimmu still alive or did he become human centuries ago? Finally what did being the decedent of a Sanjiyan Unkara mean in regards to Emperor Yamato Hirohito? Nabiki frowned as she had a lot of questions but few if any answers.

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[Author's note - Like the Oni and beast spirits the Sanjiyan Unkara can summon the Hong-Nyang/Ran-Pao-Pao is from another plane of existence. As the name suggests (Wolf-rage-rage) anger seems to be what causes the transformation from Hong-Nyang to Ran-Pao-Pao hence Parvati's efforts to frighten Ryoga. A magic whistle can also cause the change.


	5. Chap 05 Of Fiends and Friends

Ranma 1/2 is the creation of Rumiko Takahashi, 3x3 eyes (Sazan Eyes) is the creation of Yuzo Takada, Sailor Moon is the creation of Naoko Takeuchi. All are used without permission. This fan-fiction isn't intended for commercial use but is rather a tribute to Ranma 1/2, 3X3 Eyes, and Sailor Moon.

Chapter 5 Of Fiends and Friends

Nabiki looked up from her ledger and out over the backyard which right now looked like something out of a horror film with the all the Oni in it. Ranma was sparring with Shampoo on top of a Fey-Oh some 10 feet above the ground while Parvati and Akane were sparring on the ground to an audience composed of a Tou-Chao, Shou-Rin, and Tei-Chin-Chii-Chii-Chong. Ryoga had disappeared on his way to the bathroom the day they found him much to the annoyance of Parvati.

By contrast Parvati had been amused when she caught Nabiki taking revealing pictures of her to sale to Kuno. Parvati remarked on the absence of students at the dojo and gave her a finely faceted ruby as a small payment for turning her home into as Kuno put it "an outpost of the lowest Hells". Nabiki had nearly face faulted when Parvati's ruby had brought nearly a quarter of a million yen; rubies in general weren't normally **that** valuable. But Parvati had considered this a small payment so who knows what other wealth the girl had. For that kind of wealth Nabiki would willingly turn her home into Dis itself. Nabiki 's biggest challenge had been getting the other girls at school to accept Ranko as a different person from Ranma and few still thought he was trying peep. Nabiki sighed, sometimes it wasn't just boys who had too many hormones.

When it came to dealing with spirit magic and the spirit world Parvati displayed an indifferent superior attitude not that dissimilar to the Ice Queen mask Nabiki wore at school. Nabiki frowned at this thought as her eyes shifted the dojo which contained several castes of water that Takuhi had returned with nearly three weeks ago. She figured that Parvati was thinking about offering her the option of becoming a Sanjiyan Unkara; Nabiki didn't know if she should be flattered or scared out of her wits. A chirp brought Nabiki out of her thoughts and back to her desk where Takuhi was sitting its head cocked to one side. "Just thinking Takuhi." she said scratching its belly. Takuhi had taken a shine to Nabiki and despite that it looked like a harpy Nabiki found the presence of the little demon-bird soothing for some reason.

"Breakfast is ready." called out Kasumi.

"We're coming, Kasumi." said Parvati in a tone nearly identical to Pai's as she and Shampoo jumped down to the ground. With a gesture Parvati directed the Tou-Chao and Shou-Rin to patrol the backyard. The Fey-Oh shrunk down to the size of a small cat and curled around Akake's neck making soft chirps having taking a liking to her after she used her battle aura.

Nabiki descended the stairs with Takuhi on her shoulder like a parrot and sat down with the rest. She noticed that the Tei-Chin-Chii-Chii-Chong had attached itself to Kasumi; the first time they had seen this Nabiki and Akane had been angry until Parvati explained that the bug recharged spiritual energy. Soun as usual buried his face in the paper while Genma tried to steal food from Ranma's plate.

"Shampoo heard of demons appearing causing problems in other part of city but are being defeated by great woman warriors."

"Sounds like you are talking about the Sailor Scouts in Juubian district." said Akane.

"Akane know warrior women?"

"I know of their fights but not them personally."

"What is this about demons appearing elsewhere in Tokyo?" asked Parvati a slight edge of concern in her voice.

"There have been stories of demons appearing in neighboring Juubangia district that drain something from people and a group of magical girls know as the Sailor Scouts fighting and defeating them." said Akane.

"Are the stories specific as to what is being drained?" inquired Parvati her voice taking on a slight tinge of fear.

"No, some have it being strength others say it is their life essence." Akane commented.

"Akane right stories very confusing." added Shampoo

"Perhaps there are more than one group of demons." stated Ranma between mouthfuls.

"If so than this is troubling news." said Parvati in her normal cold tone, "Do the stories talk of demon attacks outside of this Juubangia district?"

"No in fact all the stories deal with the attacks being in the Juubangia district."

"Different attacks suggest different demons and the attacks being limited to a relatively small area imply one thing." Parvati said as she sipped her cocoa. "Someone or something is summoning and controlling these things. Most likely as part of a larger goal."

"I may be new to this whole spirit/beast/demon summoning bit but doesn't the higher powered stuff take a lot of skill and training for mortals to control?" asked Ranma.

"Correct, Wu. Eventually the baka who is summoning these things will get tired of the defeats and summon something he believes will crush these Sailor Scouts."

"Which he of course won't be able to control so it will go rampaging all over Tokyo. Wonderful." Ranma said finishing his plate and starting into his father's.

"As it is not a school day I believe that Pai should go into this Juubangia district and get a feel from the disrupted Ki of the area just how powerful these previous demons have been. It will give us a estimate for how powerful the next demon may be." Parvati raised her hand "Before you shove your foot into your mouth Wu, Pai will not be doing this alone. Takuhi will be coming with her."

"In the meanwhile, Ranko will teach Sham Pu and Akane what little she knows about spirit magic. Admittedly it's not much but it is going to take more than martial arts to fight demons and every bit helps."

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Pai walked through Juubangia district with Parvati directing her as what to look for. It was awkward for both of them as in the past Parvati would have simply manifested control but since Jusenkyo she had felt a resistance and knew better than to force the matter until she knew more about the magic that resided there. At least Parvati could still use Pai's senses so she didn't have to the added headache of trying to make head and tails out what Pai was seeing via Pai's descriptions. After less than half an hour Parvati was totally dismayed at the mosaic of demonic summoning energies Pai saw; not only was there signs of more than one type of demon here but more than one summoner. As the stories implied seem to be two types of demons present - one that drained life energy and an another that drained the soul in a form some cultures called the 'heart crystal'. Negating some of Parvati's concern was that the second and more dangerous type of demon seemed to be part of a two step process - first the demon was summoned in an egg form and then the egg was placed on an object which became the demon's 'body'. This meant these particular demons were so weak as to have no real body of their own nor could they possess living creatures. This would make them easier to deal with.

Parvati let Pai look around some more while she formed some plans of attack. The sudden alarm Pai felt at seeing small sickly girl in front of them suddenly collapse brought Parvati attention back to the physical world. Parvati mentally gasped when she saw the girl's chi, or more accurately what was left of the girl's chi. Parvati then noticed a magical aura on the girl which eclipsed the power her fiancee had shown when he had all but wiped out her race.

"You all right?" asked Pai pulling the girl to her feet.

"Yes, I'm fine." said the girl.

"Pai not fully knowledgeable about reading Ki but Pai believe you are not fine. Your Ki indicate you get tired very easily though you also seem to have a healing power." Parvati mentally winced at this. Leave it to her sister personality to simply blurt out what was on her mind. Being too open could be dangerous - something Pai had not yet grasped.

"Hey look, someone is helping the freak." said a voice from behind Pai.

Pai turned and saw three young boys. "It is duty of martial artist to help others. Pai martial artist. Pai doing her duty."

"Listen to that. The mental giant thinks she is a martial artist." said one boy laughing.

"Figures though. The only one who would help the freak would be another freak." said another boy.

"Pai not freak." said Pai hitting the ground with the base of her staff. "Pai martial artist, Pai Wu, Pai not freak."

"Look at that the other freak is mad, I'm so scared." said the boy in front with a smirk on his face. "We don't want your kind around here freak so leave."

"Why don't we have a little fun with the freaks before they leave." said the boy to the right.

"Pai warn bully boys Pai will protect herself and girl." at which Pai pointed her staff at the ground in front of the boys. "Kuan-Yaa" at which point a beam of light with what looked like a dragon's head emerged from the staff and blasted a head sized hole in the ground.

"Bully boys get message? Or should Pai aim higher? Say between bully boy's legs?" Parvati was shunned at the tone Pai was using--it sounded exactly like the one she would often use when addressing some annoying mortal. For a moment Parvati wondered if this like her previous uncharacteristically emotional outbursts was a sign something was wrong but she caught a thought from Pai - 'Showing emotion is a weakness, boy.' Now she got it; Pai had noticed how afraid people were when she, Parvati, used her cold emotionless tone. The Saotome Ryu was all about improvising and, while an idiot, Genma did occasionally give good advice. Pai had put all this together and was trying to cause the bullies to back down by a show of strength.

Pai's staff came up and like all bullies when faced by someone they felt stronger then themselves the boys ran like crazy. Parvati mentally relaxed and turned her attention to what Pai was doing.

"Pai not sure that was going to work." Pai turned her attention to the girl "Pai forget manners. I'm Saotome Pai."

"I'm Tomoe Hotaru." said the girl shaking Pai's hand. "You're a magical girl, just like in the shoujo manga." exclaimed Tomoe Hotaru.

"Pai not know of shoujo manga but Pai use magic and Pai girl so Pai magical girl." Internally Parvati mentally groaned - that sounded even dumber than something their baka father would say.

Hotaru considered Pai for a moment. Pulling Pai into a nearby alley she then made a gesture and Pai saw that a purple stick had appeared in Hotaru's hand. "It's real. I had a vision when I was out of this henshin stick transforming me into a magical girl."

Pai looked at the henshin stick and noticed the strange symbol at the top. It at first glance looked like a stylized 'h' with a 't's cross bar at the top of the 'h'. "Pai seen this symbol before in a book on alchemy. It is the symbol for lead."

"Wasn't that the metal alchemists kept trying to turn into gold?"

"Pai believe so. Alchemists only know of seven metals. The other five metals were silver, iron, mercury, tin, and copper. Pai also vaguely remember each metal being connected to a day and one of the seven planets known at time; also something about the Zodiac being involved but that all Pai remembers."

"So I'm a part of a group of six other magical girls? But why lead?"

Pai thought a bit. "Pai remember that alchemic metals also had numbers related to them. If Pai remembering correctly Lead's number was one. Perhaps it means you are first."

Hotaru looked at the henshin stick and suddenly raising it said "Saturn Eternal Power! Make Up!"

Pai backed up a little bit as a spectacular transformation took place. The girl then settled back down taking a look at her new outfit. The knee high boots with low heels and short skirt were obviously designed for fighting. The bow and ribbons appeared to a hindrance rather than an asset but Pai knew enough about magic to know that appearances were in general the worst judge of potential.

Meanwhile Parvati was scared for the second time in her life. The power she felt from the little stick was nothing compared to the power the girl now radiated. It was more than enough power to destroy the entire world. Letting this girl run loose with no idea of her power worked was a majorly bad idea but how to deal with it. Parvati then hit on an idea. Evidently these shoujo manga involved mortals transforming into more powerful beings. Ranma fit that bill and so did Pai. They could train the girl in the use of her powers.

'Pai? The girl needs training and right now we are the best she is going to get.' Parvati thought to her sister.

"Yes, sister." said Pai out loud startling Hotaru.

"My sister says that she and Pai should train you in the use of you powers." Pai smiled "but let's first take you home." Pai then uncorked her staff and a human sized Takuhi popped out. Pai quickly go on Takuhi's back, "Come on this only one of Pai's friends." Hotaru uncertainly got on the bird's back behind Pai. Takuhi then took off with Hotaru giving directions.

When they arrived at Hotaru's house, Pai noticed that all the heart crystal demons energies focused here. More over the place was virtually saturated in that same demonic energy, it was a wonder the girl behind her was still alive and human. "Hotaru something bad, very bad, has happened to your home." said Pai her voice shaky.

"What do you mean?"

"Pai have power of sensing demonic energy. Hotaru's house is at the center of soul draining demons and is saturated with that same energy."

"Pai one of my powers is the ability to sense evil." Hotaru turned her attention to her home and saw waves of evil energy emanating from her father and his lab assistant Kaolinte. "No, no, not my father. Something has turned him from the caring man I knew into a monster." Hotaru put her face in her hands and started to cry.

"Just like Kaiyanwang." whispered Pai.

"What?" said Hotaru as she pulled her face from her hands. "Who is Kaiyanwang?"

"He was to be Pai's husband but for some reason he changed from a caring person into a conquest obsessed madman. When my people fought him only Pai survive."

"We got so save my father." exclaimed Hotaru.

"Pai's people attacked without a true plan and they all died. We need to get to Pai's home, form a plan to defeat this evil, and hopefully save your father." Pai's hands balled up into fists as she picked up thoughts passing through Parvati's mind. 'What if the reason Kaiyanwang can gone crazy had nothing to do with a botched attempt at becoming human but he had in fact been controlled like this mortal's father? What if this force was the real reason her people died?' "Takuhi take us to the Tendo dojo, now." said Pai in a tone as cold as ice.

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	6. Chap 06 The Reborn Kingdom

Ranma 1/2 is the creation of Rumiko Takahashi, 3x3 eyes (Sazan Eyes) is the creation of Yuzo Takada, Sailor Moon is the creation of Naoko Takeuchi. All are used without permission. This fan-fiction isn't intended for commercial use but is rather a tribute to Ranma 1/2, 3X3 Eyes, and Sailor Moon.

Chapter 6 The Reborn Kingdom

The spirit magic training had gone about as well as Ranko expected. Akane with her ability to form a battle aura had a better time summoning spirit creatures but since her aura was driven by anger she could only easily bring forth spirits related to anger in some manner. Shampoo had only summoned one spirit, a Tou-Chao. It was going to be a while before either of them would even be near an average Wu's summoning skill.

Hotaru had thought that Pai's transport was only a strange looking bird, but what she saw in the yard frightened her. What was in the yard could only be demons. And yet she could sense no evil from any of them or in the whole area below. Perhaps Pai was like Vampire Princess Miyu or Ayame Yagami descended from a demon world being but using her heritage to fight rather than help them.

"Pai, are you a demon as well as a magical girl?" asked Hotaru nervously.

"Pai was Divine Demon or Sanjiyan Unkara but Pai became human and then Wu. Pai practice Ganso Musabetsu Kakuto Ryu, take all you know and learn and use it to protect those who cannot protect themselves." Pai said her voice having a happy tone to it, "Sisters Ranko and Parvati are Sanjiyan Unkara, brother Ranma Wu, all of us use and train in Ganso Musabetsu Kakuto Ryu."

'That explains the demons.' thought Hotaru. Pai had given up her demon heritage and along with her brother become this thing called Wu. Her sisters were still demons but they helped Pai fight the evil around them. Hotaru felt slightly less nervous but vowed to be careful regardless.

"Ranko, get everyone in the dojo Pai have a statement to make." Pai called down to the people below. A red headed girl looked up and called out, "Ok you heard her, let's get to the dojo."

One everyone was seated Pai introduced Hotaru and told them of the discovery they had made.

"You mean that something took over Hotaru's father and is having him summon these soul stealing demons?" asked Ranko.

"Exactly and if we are to have any hope at stopping and saving him we need a short cut in spirit summoning training." Pai finished glancing to where the Jusenkyo water was stored.

"You don't mean..." catching Pai's glance Ranko's three eyes opened wide in realization "That has got to be the most insane idea I have ever heard of, Neko-ken included!" exclaimed Ranko.

"Parvati not thrilled with idea either but can see no alternative. Parvati agree with Pai it would be most efficient way of improving Akane and Shampoo's spirit summoning powers and would allow Kasumi and Nabiki to effectively defend themselves. If this like what happen to Pai's fiancé we may not have enough time to do it other way."

"As one of the interested parties mind telling us just what is going on?" asked Akane a little heatedly to which one of the Fei-oh she had summoned responded by cooing.

Nabiki looked at Ranko and sighed "She plans to actually use that water Parvati had Takuhi get doesn't she?"

"Spring of Drowned Female Sanjiyan Unkara." whispered Genma.

Shampoo eyes grew as large as saucers "Honored One want to make us all Sanjiyan Unkara?!"

"Not all. Just the four of us girls. Right?" said Nabiki coolly.

Hotaru stiffened. Pai wanted to turn people into Divine Demons? She believed the threat they sensed from her father was that dangerous? Or was something else more sinister going on? Hotaru felt very afraid at what was going on.

"Yes, Nabiki." said Pai as she got up, went out and came back in with a large pan and a bucket. Breaking open a caste of water she poured its contents into the bucket. "Who wants to be first?"

"JUST WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU ARE DOING?" said Soun manifesting a demon head attack. Normally the person facing such an attack would have frightened silly. Unfortunately Soun forgot that 'normal' had a totally different meaning in Pai's world.

"Oooo. Soun show Pai new martial art technique. Will train Pai on how to use?" she said as Ranko nodded at Ranma's mental comment at their father's response. 'Woman weak? Pai's not the one about to wet his Gi, old man.'

'True, Ranma, but from the look on Hotaru's face I would say that Pai is going a little too fast. Especially for someone not used to dealing with oni on a regular basis as we do.'

"Don't worry, Hotaru, Soun isn't a demon. That simply a martial arts technique using Ki." said Ranko to the nervous Hotaru.

Soun was so stunned by Pai's response that his demon head attack collapsed leaving a totally confused expression behind. Soun started to think on how to handle this when everyone heard **splash** "Oh my."

Everybody turned their attention to the momentary forgotten water. Standing in the middle of the pan was a drenched Kasumi holding the bucket over her head. She slowly blinked her three eyes. Ranko stared in disbelieving shock at what had happened. Kasumi was the LAST person she had expected to go for the water first. Nabiki she could see using the water in her quest to make money, Akane as a way to boost her martial artist skills, and Shampoo out of pride. But Kasumi?!? It just didn't make sense.

Setting the bucket down, Kasumi started to move the fingers of her right hand with her left. Satisfied with the result she made a gesture "Tei-Chin-Chii-Chii-Chong." Another of the energy restorative bugs appeared and promptly attaching itself to her.

"Excuse me, I need to change clothes; Pai, will your friend be staying for dinner?" smiled Kasumi.

"Pai believe so, Kasumi, she can't go home as it is now." Kasumi smiled and went into the house.

Hotaru looked at the water in the pan with dread. She had seen proof that this water could change a person into a Divine Demon. How long before somebody decided to use it on her? Her train of thought was derailed by Soun crying like crazy.

"Why? Why did my darling Kasumi turn herself into a monster? WAHAHAHAHA" Soun was crying so much that he didn't notice the change in Pai's expression. Genma did however did and started to look around for some cold water, or failing that a quick exit.

As it turned out it was Shampoo rather than Pai who reacted physically to Soun's statement. In one fluid motion she got up, dashed across the dojo floor, grabbed Soun by his Gi, and slammed him into the wall. "Listen wailing man Sanjiyan Unkara are NOT monsters. They are the most honored beings of the Joketsuzoku. To be considered the friend of an Honored One is a great honor but to actually be made an Honored One is unheard of." Shampoo then released Soun and went to the pan. Carefully pouring the water back into the bucket Shampoo stood in the pan with the bucket raised over her head. "Shampoo honored that Honored One feels she is worthy to join her people." said Shampoo as she dumped the bucket over her head. Shampoo then opened her third eye with a disappointed look on her face "Shampoo expected change to more pronounced than this. Shampoo doesn't feel any different." said Shampoo as she stepped out of the pan and carefully refilled the bucket.

"From Pai's story and Ranma's comments I think it takes a while." said Nabiki "Remember that Ranma said that after Ranko asserted herself he found her abilities vital to his training. That means for a while there was no Ranko only Ranma. Ranko woke up after Ranma had chased Genma all over the place." said Nabiki as she got up and extended her hand to Akane.

"Looks like it's our turn." Akane just looked at the hand in front of her. "Come on sister. Unless the idea of having your very soul ripped out of your body by some demon appeals to you. Or do you like kinky stuff like that?" smirked Nabiki.

Akane took the hand and pulled herself up, "I am NOT a pervert."

"Of course you're not." said Nabiki as she shooed away a Fei-oh attracted by Akane's anger as they walked to the pan.

Lifting the bucket over their heads Nabiki smiled "Just think neither of us will ever have to be worried about being alone again."

"NOOOOOOO" said Soun who dived at the pair with predictable results. **Splash,** **crash,****splash**. Nabiki and Akane looked over at a dark haired woman under an upturned pan in an ill fitting brown Gi. Akane's three eyes held anger while Nabiki's held amusement. "Why father you if you wanted to join you could have just waited." Nabiki commented with a laugh in her voice.

Soun looked at his two now Sanjiyan Unkara daughters and then down the front of his Gi and promptly fainted. Genma started saying the same thing over and over again as if it was a mystic chant, "This is a bad dream; I would like to wake up now. This is a bad dream; I would like to wake up now."

Pai winced "Parvati, please calm down your mental yelling giving Pai headache." she then pulled out a kettle and stared heating the water inside.

"What... What has happened to all of you?" Hotaru said nervously hoping that what she had just saw was not real.

Nabiki smirked "We just became Sanjiyan Unkara. Or if you're Chinese Divine Demons, or if you're Hindu, gods."

"Shampoo not understand what Nabiki mean with 'gods'? Shampoo thought that was only delusion of stick boy."

"Remember Parvati's comment that while not a goddess that a Hindu would disagree? I did some research and from what I can tell her people _were_ the Hindu gods. There are indications that other pantheons around the world may have been based on other isolated Sanjiyan Unkara tribes."

"Hmph. Mortals may regard us as gods or demons because of our immortality, eternal youth, and magic powers but in the finally assessment we are still beings of flesh and blood. My power mad fiancé proved that all too well."

Hotaru turned to her new friend and saw the three eyes that nearly everyone else had. "Pai? What happened to you?" she said getting to her feet.

"Sorry, Hotaru, I'm Princess Parvati IV of the Saotome clan, Pai's sister. I wanted to get involved in this little discourse and so she brought me out. Its almost like being back home in the Sanjiyan Holy Land with this many fellow Sanjiyan Unkara around."

Hotaru's eyes narrowed "Princess? That implies a Kingdom."

"A kingdom without subjects as its last ruler slew them as they tried to stop his mad dream of conquest. In the end all they could do was seal him in a never-ending dreamless sleep." said Parvati softly.

"That is what 'Kaiyanwang' means isn't it? It's your people's term for 'king'?" asked Nabiki softly.

"Yes. Literally it means 'Demon eye King'." said Parvati looking at the ground.

"The Queen is dead. Long live the Queen." whispered Genma.

Parvati's face snapped up immediately, "What was that?"

"It's an old saying used when the old ruler died and the new one came to replace them. If you're a princess your mother had to be a queen. Since everyone else died fighting this Kaiyanwang then you are the new queen." said Genma.

"Every so often you actually make an intelligent statement, father." smirked Parvati. "But it is a kingdom of ashes filled with nothing but the corpses of those who fought Kaiyanwang some 300 years ago and the remains of a destroyed civilization."

Parvati's smirk dropped into an expression of revelation. "Kuso. I have been a fool these last 300 years. Kaiyanwang is sealed but the Wu he created before he went mad isn't. Benares is out there somewhere likely looking for a way to free Kaiyanwang. PARVATI NO BAKA."

"Could this Benares be behind the demon summonings?" asked Akane.

Parvati thought a moment "Human life energy is very powerful. It could be used to break a magical barrier such as that imprisons Kaiyanwang."

"What of the soul stealing demons? The ones that have enslaved my father?" asked Hotaru.

"I cannot think of how Benares could use that energy to break the barrier. But then again I didn't know Ki could be used to improve human abilities or do attacks to such a level as I have seen. What really concerns me is the similarities between what is happened with your father and what happened to Siva some 300 years ago." Parvati put her finger to the side of her mouth. "The Ningen No Zou."

"Huh? I thought that thing turned only turned Sanjiyan Unkara into humans." said Ranko.

"Used one way used another it could be used as a weapon. A weapon powerful enough to destroy the world," Parvati said somberly. "It likely has other powers I don't know about."

"Wonderful, and we got the Wu of a power mad Sanjiyan who has been running around for the last 300 years doing Kami-Sama knows what." said Ranko.

"So we increase our training and keep an eye out for Benares as well as this Ningen No Zou." said Akane.

Nabiki thought a moment "Didn't Pai say that she was looking for a Yakumo who would lead her to the Ningen No Zou?"

Parvati smiled "You have a good memory to have remembered that little detail from a story heard only once just over a week ago."

"Hey what can I say? I can't always carry a notepad with me and you never know what piece of information will be useful."

"Pai had a letter to Yakumo from his late father Professor Fujii." Parvati started rummaging through Pai's backpack. "Extra clothes, old painting, Shiva's Claw, Professor Fujii's skull, ah here it is the letter to Yakumo." she said as she handed the letter to Nabiki.

"Got more water in that kettle?" asked Nabiki as she held the letter to the light while Parvati repacked Pai's backpack. Hotaru shifted nervously as Parvati picked up the human skull and put it away, but again her powers showed nothing evil in any of the people around her so she simply sat quietly.

"Sure but why do you need to be human, Nabiki?" asked Parvati.

Nabiki chuckled softly "It's not for me, it's to steam open the letter so we can read the contents but as far as this Yakumo is concerned deliver it unopened."

Parvati's ki soon had the kettle pouring out steam. Nabiki deftly ran the edge of the envelope through the steam and hitting the flap in two places caused it to open. "Viola, now lets see what this thing says." Nabiki unfolded the letter occasionally reading out loud, "'Dear Yakumo hope this letter finds you well. yada yada yada. The Sanjiyan have been so isolated as to be biologically speaking a separate species from man akin to demon.' Hmph, the Professor needed refresher courses in human evolution and theology. 'Enclosed is a picture of the Ningen No Zou.'" said Nabiki putting the picture out for all to see. "'I have entrusted the statue to the Yogekisha Company in Hong Kong.'" Folding up the letter and putting it back in the envelope Nabiki picked up the picture "First we make a copy of this picture, then we find this Fujii Yakumo, and finally using the letter and original photo we convince him to go to Hong Kong to get the statue."

"Ok, but we can't all be doing this. And besides once he has read the letter this Yakumo is going to be wary if a group shows up. Parvati and I need to stay here to continue the training in combining martial arts with spirit magic." said Ranko.

"Yakumo will be expecting someone Chinese as his father mentions the Konron and Kunlon mountains of Tibet in his letter." commented Nabiki, "That eliminates Akane, Kasumi, myself, and father. That only leaves Shampoo to pretend to be Pai and get this Ningen No Zou."

"Shampoo, ah Pai ready to find Yakumo. What Pai need?" said Shampoo.

"Let's spend the rest of the evening getting what we need together and going over what 'Pai' will need to know."

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Meanwhile the last survivor of another Kingdom was getting a major headache. Events had been going as planned for the formation of Crystal Tokyo until several months ago. Then for no reason she could see Pharaoh 90 decided to attack nearly a year ahead of schedule. So she had to make Sailors Neptune and Uranus wake up ahead of schedule. Unfortunately just as she prepared to wake them up she felt someone from the future force their way into the past. As a result the activation spell got totally messed up; Sailor Saturn was going to wake up a full two weeks before Neptune and Uranus did. Then the Time Gates effectively became a Heisenberg Cuisinart regarding projections for the current timeline making planning any more corrections impossible.

Sure she could still view and access the future Chibi Usa came from but none of the information she gathered from that timeline was of any use. Heck, her counterpart for some reason couldn't even leave the Time Gates. Now there was a weird mixture of demonic energy and something very close to Silver Millennium magic in Nerima which rendered the Time Gates blind to the present and future of that particular area. Setsuna sighed, the only thing to do now would be go and gather information the hard way. Looking into the past she noticed a large amount of weirdness at Furinkan High. 'Well that was as good as anywhere to start.' she thought. Looking at herself she thought, 'Too old to pose as a student, so I have to pose as a teacher. Hmm there is an opening for a history teacher. Wonder why it hasn't been filled in two years. Oh well it will give me an excuse to gather information on 'current' events.'

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	7. Chap 07 Reconnaissance

Ranma 1/2 is the creation of Rumiko Takahashi, 3x3 eyes (Sazan Eyes) is the creation of Yuzo Takada, Sailor Moon is the creation of Naoko Takeuchi. All are used without permission. This fan-fiction isn't intended for commercial use but is rather a tribute to Ranma 1/2, 3X3 Eyes, and Sailor Moon.

Chapter 7 Reconnaissance

Akane woke up well rested and noticed that it was still dark outside. Curious she looked at her alarm clock and nearly dropped it. 4:00 a.m?! She never woke up that early before. 'Must be something to do with being a Sanjiyan Unkara.' she thought. 'Well nothing to do but get ready for school. I imagine everyone else is up as well.' thought Akane as she went to the bathroom to clean her face. In the bathroom she filled the sink with warm water, put the wash cloth in, and picked up the soap. The moment she picked up the wash cloth to suds it up she felt a change come over her. "So this is what the change Parvati goes though feels like." Akane wondered out loud. As she washed her face she assessed how different her human body felt from her Sanjiyan Unkara one. She noticed that she still felt refreshed; ok rest and one presumed fatigue carried over from one form to the other.

However she felt sluggish in this form; well Ranma had said something about Parvati being able to channel Ki and Chakra like a martial artist with decades of training. It was probably an innate ability of all Sanjiyan Unkara to do that. Akane finished washing her face and after wringing out the washcloth ran cold water over her hands. Again she felt the change. She definitely felt stronger and faster as a Sanjiyan Unkara. 'I'll have to remember to ask to Ranko about this.'

Akane descended the stairs where she found Kasumi happily cleaning the house. "Hello Akane. Would you like breakfast?"

"Not right now, Kasumi. Let the others wake up first."

"Ok." said Kasumi as a bird demon came in clicking softly. "Oh you gathered and sorted the clothes, good. It is so nice to have help in the house work. I love him dearly but father doesn't do anything to help and just sits there bemoaning the lost of mother. To really _know_ that there is something after death lifts the heavy burden that I have had ever since mother died."

"Is that why you became Sanjiyan Unkara, Kasumi?" asked Akane.

"No but it is a nice bonus. The reason I became Sanjiyan Unkara was because I could call on friends to help me properly keep up the house. There never was enough time in the day to do what needed to be done but now I have extra time to learn and try new dishes. Isn't that nice?" Kasumi smiled.

"Sure Kasumi. I take it Ranko is still outside?"

"Yes, wasn't it nice of Ranko to give up her room to Hotaru?" Kasumi then frowned "better than that excuse of a father of hers. To say that Hotaru should be the one to sleep outside. How thoughtless." she then smiled "But she straightened him out didn't she?"

"Yes slamming the table in the head of that thoughtless idiot does do wonders to winning an argument with him," snickered Akane as she walked to the back yard.

Akane was surprised by how clearly she could see Ranko doing katas even though there was little light available. She also noticed Shampoo sitting on the edge of the Ki pond in apparent self contemplation. 'She looks like she needs a friend to talk to.' thought Akane as she want and sat down next to Shampoo.

"Puts things into prospective doesn't it? Becoming Sanjiyan Unkara I mean."

"Akane right puts many things in different light. Shampoo lucky that Honored One was so forgiving. Could have harshly punished Shampoo for arrogance."

"I don't understand."

"That right. Akane not know why Shampoo travel with Honored One. It all began with Shampoo defeating last Joketsuzoku sister in tournament."

**---Flashback--- **

Sham Pu was so proud to have defeated her last opponent. All her hard work had paid off, she was the best of her tribe. Now all she needed to do was claim the prize of food. But what was this, two outsider girls and their pet panda eating her prize?

"That my prize!" exclaimed Sham Pu in Mandarin.

The red headed girl asked one of Sham Pu's tribal sisters in Japanese what Shampoo had said; the Joketsuzoku sister explained about the tournament and that the food was first prize. But instead of apologizing and asking if Shampoo would share the food the red head instead asked if she defeated Sham Pu would the prize be hers. When the Joketsuzoku sister said yes the red head jumped up on the challenge log.

"I'm Ranko of the Ganso Musabetsu Kakuto Ryu, and I challenge you for first prize." said the girl.

Sham Pu seethed. This weak outsider first eats her prize and than challenges her it even though Sham Pu would have gladly shared. She would show this girl that the Joketsuzoku were superior to any outsider. "Shampoo defeat weak girl." Shampoo said in broken Japanese. Ranko smiled which angered Sham Pu even further. 'Just because I don't speak your language well doesn't mean I'm weak.' thought Sham Pu who promptly attacked the girl.

Instead of fighting back the girl simply dodged. Sham Pu got even angrier as she realized that the girl had played her for a fool. Sham Pu was tired from the long tournament and as a result wasn't fighting at her full strength. The girl had figured this out and goaded Sham Pu into accepting her challenge. No she wouldn't let this outsider ruin her achievement this day thought Sham Pu as she lunged at the girl in attempt to knock them both off the challenge log resulting in a tie. Sadly the girl had better reflexes then Sham Pu had expected and easily jumped out of the way while staying on the log. As a result Sham Pu went into the pit loosing the match and the tournament.

Sham Pu was now furious with the outsider girl. How to punish this weak outsider for humiliating her? Then she remembered an old Law which stated that a female Joketsuzoku who was defeated by an female outsider had to give the Kiss Of Death to them. Sham Pu smiled as no one outside the Joketsuzoku knew the truth of this law; that it was in reality a test. This weak outsider would fail the test and Sham Pu's humanization would be avenged. She walked up to the outsider and kissed her on the cheek. Sham Pu heard someone explain the Kiss Of Death to her but to Sham Pu's surprise the girl's companion leapt in between the two of them.

"Pai what are you doing?" said Ranko.

"It's Pai's duty to protect you." said the girl.

Sham Pu saw that Pai had next to no skill in fighting and this angered Sham Pu even more. How dare this outsider hide behind such an unskilled fighter, it proved that the girl was weak.

"Obstacles for killing" said Shampoo hoping it would be enough to cause Pai to back off but Pai insisted to on trying to protect the cowardly Ranko. No matter a few good hits and Pai would go down without any real harm and then Sham Pu would deal with this Ranko. Sham Pu landed a few hits on Pai thinking 'got to make this look good'. At which point Sham Pu's dreams of revenge turned into a nightmare.

"HOW DARE YOU THREATEN THE LIFE OF OBVIOUSLY WEAKER OPPONENT!" screamed Ranko as she grabbed Sham Pu and threw her across the village.

Sham Pu got up and looked at Ranko whose face was a mask of utter fury, her three eyes nearly blazing with fire. What a minute her _three_ eyes?! 'Oh no what have I done?' thought Sham Pu as an icy fear gripped her heart. The only people Sham Pu had ever heard of having three eyes were the Sanjiyan Unkara, a tribe of people so powerful and feared that it was said that even the proud and powerful god of Phoenix Mountain Sa Fulang knelt before even the weakest of them.

"YOU DARE CALL YOURSELF A MARTIAL ARTIST, THREATENING THE LIFE OF SOMEONE WHO CANNOT EVEN PROPERLY DEFEND THEMSELVES." screamed Ranko, "ESPECIALLY AFTER I JUST HAD ADOPTED PAI INTO MY FAMILY AS MY SISTER."

Fear prevented Sham Pu from answering the totally furious Sanjiyan Unkara in front of her. 'She adopted Pai as her sister? Sham Pu you really screwed up.'

"MORE OVER WHAT KIND OF PATHETIC PEOPLE HAVE A LAW THAT WHEN THEY ARE DEFEATED THEY HAVE TO KILL THAT PERSON? IT WOULD BE NO GREAT LOSS IF SUCH A PETTY TRIBE WAS WIPED FROM THE FACE OF THE EARTH!" yelled the Sanjiyan Unkara.

'I'm going to die. My tribe is going to die. All because of my stupid pride.' thought Sham Pu.

The Sanjiyan Unkara shook her head and seemed to compose herself. "Let's get out of here." said Ranko grabbing Pai and pulling her into the surrounding woods quickly followed by the Panda.

Sham Pu looked in the direction Ranko had gone. 'I have to follow her. I have to tell her the truth about the Kiss of Death. I will pay any price even having my soul consumed to protect my tribe.' she thought as she got on her feet and chased after Ranko.

**---End Flashback--- **

"Shampoo catch up to Ranko several days latter. She decided that Shampoo make good teacher for her new Wu, Pai. About a week later Ranko tell Shampoo of Ranma and Parvati. Finally actually meet them when Pai first generate Ki heat week after that."

"From what I have read you were lucky." said a voice behind them.

Turning they saw a smirking Nabiki.

"How long you been there, Nabiki?" asked Akane crossly.

"Long enough. If the various religions around the world are accurate portrayals of the personalities of various Sanjiyan Unkara then there would have been some who wouldn't have thought twice about wiping out you and your village then and there."

"You're kidding, right?" asked a troubled Akane.

"No I'm deadly serious. For example in Hinduism there is a story of a man named Bhrigu who went to see which of three main Hindu gods Brahma, Siva, or Vishnu was most worthy of worship. When he insulted Brahma he was verbally chastised, Siva's response was to try and fry him and only by totally humiliating himself was Bhrigu able to survive. Bhrigu then went to Vishnu's home and kicked Vishnu awake and Vishnu asked if Bhrigu had hurt his foot and then proceeded to bandage it. From this Bhrigu deemed Vishnu most worthy of worship."

"But Siva was to be Parvati's husband." said Shampoo.

"Siva is both the god of creation and destruction. He could be forgiving or heartless as well as forthright or mysterious. He could create or destroy. Sound familiar?" smirked Nabiki.

"Pai and Parvati. Or me and Ranma." said Ranko.

Everybody turned to see Ranko still doing katas. "One advantage about having two personalities is while one is occupied with one task the other can do something else. Like overhear conversations or plan new martial artist techniques." she said finishing a particular complex kata. She then came over and sat near the koi pond.

"You really shouldn't end the story there. Without an explanation the Kiss of Death DOES sound petty." Ranko said with a humorous lint in her voice. "I mean five non-Joketsuzoku already know the secret of the Kiss."

"Shampoo not understand. She only tell Ranko and Pai." said Shampoo in a confused voice.

"Lets count off who knows shall we?" said the smiling Ranko holding out a fist and extending a finger for each name she said. "Pai. Parvati. Ranma. Myself. And the Sanjiyan Unkara named Shampoo." extending the thumb with the last name. Showing her now open hand to Shampoo Ranko chuckled "See, five."

Shampoo looked at the open hand and in realization laughed. "Ranko right. In cold water form Shampoo isn't Joketsuzoku but rather Sanjiyan Unkara."

"Thought you might get a good laugh at that. You needed one. You, Ranma, and Parvati are too serious all the time. He's just beginning to realize that are more things to life than martial arts. This is important for all of you to broaden your horizons because it is possible for you to live far longer than any of your cultures have existed. If by that time you have learned all the martial arts there are what are you going to do?"

Shampoo's opened all three of her eyes in shock, "But Joketsuzoku 3,000 years old."

"Remember that painting Parvati pulled out of her backpack? She told me she didn't know how old it really was but she thought it was done by her mother and predated every culture Pai knew about. She _did_ say that that it predated the birth of a mortal named Cheops. His great achievement was to build the only one of the Seven Wonders of the World still standing. I think Parvati said that it was the Wonder called the Great Pyramid."

"Kami-Sama." said Nabiki her three eyes the size of dinner plates with realization.

"What's wrong, sis?" asked Akane.

"I remember a paper I did on ancient Egypt. As I remember Cheops the builder of the Great Pyramid lived nearly 5,000 years ago." Nabiki looked at Ranko, "Parvati could have lived longer than the Great Pyramid has existed?! No wonder she was running around looking for a way to become human after her fiancé killed her people."

"Speaking of becoming human this is the day Sham Pu goes into Shinjuku Ward of Tokyo and looks for Yakumo. We have to get that Ningen No Zou and find out what other powers it has."

Shampoo clapped her hands together and took on an expression of total bliss "Pai so happy to find Yakumo. Help Pai find Ningen No Zou so Pai become human."

"That's a little too happy, Sham Pu. Remember you're supposed to get this Yakumo's help not send the poor guy into diabetic shock." winced Ranko.

"Actually I think that's about right, Ranko. Pai can be a little too happy at times." said Parvati as she came up to the koi pond.

"You're getting better. You were only a yard away before I or rather Ranma heard you." Ranko's eyes narrowed, "The one thing I don't understand is why your martial arts skills are less than Pai's. Unlike Ranma and me you don't have as drastic a physical change. If anything because of the ease we Sanjiyan Unkara channel Chakra and Ki your skills should be better than Pai's."

"We're not used to living like this." Parvati said sheepishly as she sat down. "Normally I would only vaguely pay attention when Pai was interacting with the world. I would only assert myself when I felt it was warranted. Now I cannot manifest when this body is in cold water form and I can't relinquish control to Pai when in warm water form. Pai and I didn't regularly communicate over the last 300 years. In fact it got to the point that I think Pai had forgotten that I existed at all."

"Well you and Pai are going to have to work together. I don't want Ranma having to spend twice the normal time teaching you the same techniques because you have an ego problem about working with Pai. If Ranma who had been told over and over by our idiot father that women were 'weak, helpless, crying little things' could drop his Mt. Fuji sized ego and admit that I was actually better than he was in certain things and he could learn from me I don't see why you cannot do the same thing." said Ranko with an annoyed look in all three of her eyes.

"Yes, Sensei." said the downcast Parvati.

"What's with the Sensei comment? In the realm of martial artists Ranma is the Sensei but in the realm of the Sanjiyan Unkara we all are the students and YOU are the Sensei."

"Of course, sister." smirked Parvati.

"Better." smiled Ranko.

"Hey, I see panda for brains is sleeping outside." said Nabiki pointing to a black and white form rolling over in the wet grass as it snored loudly.

"I'm surprised once he woke up from the table he didn't go to sleep in the dojo." scowled Akane with disgust.

"I threw some of that women are weak drivel back in his face." chuckled Ranko.

Dropping her voice to a baritone Ranko said "I'm going to sleep in the dojo, boy."

Then in her normal voice she replied "But Pai and I are going to sleep outside without even tents. You mean you are going to take it easier than us weak, weepy, women? Oh the shame I have such a weakling for a father!"

"The look on his face when I said that, it was a total laugh riot." said Ranko as she, Shampoo, and Parvati laughed.

Akane and Nabiki chuckled. "I wish I had seen that." said Akane.

"Which reminds me, given the cold wet dew on the ground how come I'm talking to Parvati and not my Wu Pai?" said Ranko in a mock serious tone.

"Pai was trying to better control that anger battle aura I created using the koi pond as a way to keep cool. She wound up heating the water instead."

"Result instant Parvati. Well this week it is Pai's and my turn to physically be in school so you best wipe your face with cold water before we go."

"On a more serious matter what about the idea of our father and Soun wanting Ranma to marry Akane?" asked Parvati.

"I was wondering when somebody was going to bring that up." quipped Nabiki. "You couldn't imagine the questions I've been asked."

"Oh I don't HAVE to imagine. Ranma probably got asked every one of them." said Ranko shaking her head, "There were times I wondered if any male student there besides Ranma who looked at a girl and thought with something ABOVE the freaking waist line."

"That Ranma's sex education was even worse than his social skill education didn't help." Ranko grimaced "I was formed out of all female parts of Ranma's mind that his father had taught him to suppress. Unfortunately all I had to go on was Ranma's memories and knowledge so we both totally freaked when I had my first period. It took nearly half an hour for Pai and Sham Pu to calm us both down."

"Shampoo remember that. Not fun."

"You think that was not fun? Try dealing with questions about sex when your knowledge is just above nil. Especially when some of them are just plain weird. I mean what the blazes does chocolate syrup and ice cream have to do with making babies?"

"What pervert came up with that one?!" wondered Akane as she contemplating find the pervert and pounding him into the nearest wall.

"I forget. We figured it was perverted but neither of us knew why."

"Well let me explain" said Nabiki who then whispered in Ranko's ear.

Ranko three eyes grew wider and wider until "You _have_ got to be kidding!" she exclaimed.

"What can I say? Some girls like it kinky."

"Then there were the constant questions about did Akane and Ranma do 'it' when we were in this form. Neither of us understood that one."

Shampoo blushed a deep red "Sex not only for making babies, Ranko. It can also be done for pleasure. Sometimes the only one who know how to properly pleasure a woman is another woman." The blush got even redder. "One of Shampoo's Joketsuzoku sisters show Shampoo."

"Well that is something we can learn about latter" said Ranko nervously, "After all I don't want to freak out my brother with too much too quickly."

Getting up Ranko walked in the direction of the Dojo, "Ok Sham Pu time to get Pai's stuff and contact this Yakumo."

"Who Shampoo? Pai is Pai." said Shampoo.

"You really can get into that role can't you?"

"Pai fast learner." said Shampoo.

Nodding to Shampoo Ranko gave her Pai's backpack and walking stick. "Remember Takuhi is in the stick."

"Pai happy to have friend Takuhi with her." said Shampoo in a perfect copy of Pai's normal happy tone.

"Perfect. Now you know from the letter where to go find this Yakumo. So get to it."

Bouncing off Shampoo waved "Don't worry Pai be back soon with Ningen No Zou."

"Well that little problem is taken care off." walking back to the koi pond Ranko was having a little mental conversation with Ranma.

'So what DO you think about the engagement brother?'

'I don't know what to think. I mean I like Akane as a friend but having her as a wife and then us having children... Martial arts are all I know but would it be enough to provide for a family? I don't want to be like my father stealing and leaching off of people.'

'I see. You HAVE learned a lot from the three of us.'

"Akane, I talked to Ranma and before I tell you his feelings I would like to hear yours on this engagement."

Akane looked at Ranko and sighed, "I like you, Pai, Parvati, and Shampoo as friends but I really don't know about Ranma. You are right he's not perverted like the other boys at school. He doesn't try to peek up their skirts and doesn't ogle Pai or Shampoo when you are in the bath together. He treats me like a martial artist not a prize like the perverts at school. I guess I'm trying to get over the idea that not all boys are perverts."

"But Akane that is easy to get over." chuckled Ranko "Is your father perverted?"

"Certainly not! How can you even ask such a question?" asked Akane angrily.

"But you father was a boy before he was man wasn't he? Since he is not perverted then not all boys are perverts. Simple isn't it?" Ranko finished with laughter filling all three of her eyes.

Akane anger disappeared immediately and she laughed "You're right it IS easy. I just never thought of the fact that at one time my father was a boy himself. I guess I like Ranma but as a friend."

"That's the way he sees you right now."

"Well it looks like dawn is breaking. Means it is around five. I think we should all go in. Kasumi will want to know she can start making breakfast." commented Nabiki.

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Breakfast started out uneventful. Soun buried his face into the newspaper in the vain hope that if he ignored what had happened long enough it would somehow go away. Much to his chagrin Genma was fighting a loosing battle with Ranko over the food on his plate and so tried to snag some food from Soun's plate. Unfortunately in the process he knocked over Soun's glass of orange juice triggering Soun's transformation.

No longer able to ignore the events of the last night Soun starting wailing like a baby who just realized he missed his 2:00 AM feeding about an hour ago. "WAHAHAHA my whole family turns into monsters."

Despite the fact Ranma often called his father an idiot Genma did have some degree of brains in his head. At least enough to know that calling a room full of Sanjiyan Unkara monsters to their faces was on the list of totally stupid things to do.

**THRWAMM**. 'Yep definitely on the list of totally stupid things to do, old friend,' thought Genma as he now raided Soun's plate only to take a moment to look at the wall Soun was now a part of.

Kasumi returned the large mallet she had used on her father to the closet she had pulled it from, "We are not monsters, father." she said in a tone similar to Parvati's. Noticing Genma raiding her father's plate she asked in her normal sweet tone, "Saotome-san would you like seconds?"

"Yes please, Mistress." said Genma as he finished eating off of Soun's plate.

"But, mother, I don't want to go to school today." said the female Soun embedded in the wall.

"Speaking of school, I wonder if Kuno will have something different than the standard, 'I will liberate you fair goddesses from the power of the foul sorcerer Saotome Ranma.' when he sees us?" asked Ranko looking at Akane.

"I hope so. I had enough of his current drivel over the last several weeks to last me for the next 300 years of my life." grumbled Parvati.

"If you think Kuno's bad he's nothing compared to his sister Kodachi. She's totally nuts and that laugh of hers." Akane shuddered.

"Then there is their Hawaii happy father, the principal of Furinkan High. Happily no one has seen him in three years." said Nabiki.

"Which just mean he's overdue to show up and make things really nuts." fumed Akane. "By the way in the excitement I forgot to ask Shampoo the details about the Kiss of Death."

"Sorry, Akane, that's not my secret to tell. You'll have to wait until Shampoo comes back. All I can tell you is that the truth about it is really strange."

"I understand." finishing her plate Akane looked at Ranko "Well it's still going to be a while before school. So what do we do in the meanwhile?"

"We could go there now and miss the parade of idiots." said Nabiki.

"You would have though that after I turned Kuno into the Amazing Flying Numb Nuts the Dating Horde would have got the message. They make even the dumbest idea of our father look like the work of a total genius." said Ranko.

Parvati shook her head as she got up and went to the bathroom so that Pai could go to school. Before she came down though Pai would check to see if Hotaru was well enough to go to school this early.

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Meanwhile another person was planning to arrive at Furinkan High early but for very different reasons. Picking up a spatula bigger then itself, the figure said, "At last Saotome Genma and Ranma I will have my revenge." and headed to school.

Once arriving at school the figure was surprised to find some other students there. 'Interesting I wonder why they are here nearly half an hour before school starts.' walking over to the group the figure introduced itself, "Hello I'm Kuonji Ukyo."

The red head smiled broadly and exclaimed "Ucchan!"

"Ranko know Ukyo?" asked the smiling girl.

"Not directly, Pai, but our brother often told me of his first friend Kuonji Ukyo or as Ranma liked to call him Ucchan." said Ranko.

"Pai so happy to met friend of brother Ranma." Ukyo got a greeting and bear hug by the bundle of happiness known as Pai.

"Ranma is your brother?" said Ukyo pulling out of Pai's bear hug.

"That's right. Oh forgive my manners I am Saotome Ranko and this is my sister Pai. Tendo Akane and her sister Nabiki. And this is Tomoe Hotaru."

"Sisters? I didn't know Ranma had sisters." said Ukyo.

"He didn't when you two knew each other. We were adopted into the clan very recently." smiled Ranko who turned to the long haired girl "In fact, Akane, Ucchan here is a perfect example of what I was telling you about not all boys being perverted. He and Ranma played around all the time and they weren't looking up girl's skirts or attacking them for dates."

'Wait a minute.' thought Ukyo, "How much did Ranma tell you about me?"

"Oh everything. Unlike many brothers and sisters we keep no secrets from each other."

"You called me a boy."

"Oh no, I thought Genma was the only one obsessed with turning his son into a Man among Men. Don't tell me you have a father like that too." frowned Ranko. "With all due respect that women are weak crap gets on my nerves."

'What the blazes? Man among Men? Son? Women are weak? Could it be that Ranma didn't know.' "Didn't Ranma tell you?" asked Ukyo.

"Tell me what?" asked a confused Ranko.

Looking around Ukyo opened his shirt to reveal bandages on his upper body.

"Ucchan hurt?" asked Pai.

"No, Pai, those aren't bandages for wounds they are binding bandages. They are used to hide the fact that Ukyo is really a girl." said Nabiki.

"SAY WHAT?!" exclaimed Ranko.

"Could you say that little louder I think there are some monks in Tibet who didn't hear you." winced Nabiki as she tried to shake the ringing in her ears out.

"I don't understand. Why would a girl do that." asked Hotaru.

"As much as I hate to admit it Genma's ideas on women are NOT uniquely his. There are in fact born of old ideas about women once held over most of the world. From what Sham Pu told me in some places a woman wasn't even regarded as a person but as a thing, a piece of property to be bought and sold like a piece of furniture. But aside from hidebound idiots like our father I thought such ideas had largely died out in modern countries like Japan. So what gives?" said Ranko in an annoyed voice.

"Didn't your brother tell you about the okonomiyaki cart?"

"Yes but it didn't make sense. If the cart was a gift why did father ask Ranma if he liked you or okonomiyaki. Something just didn't add up and I bet it was one of Genma's slight of hand quick of mouth stunts."

"Gift? GIFT?! That okonomiyaki cart wasn't a gift it was my dowry!" spat Ukyo doing her best not to lash out with her spatula. Ranko was simply relating what she had been told. It wasn't her fault.

"Dowry? But if that cart was your dowry why did Genma come to the Tendo Dojo and have his friend Soun tell Ranma that he was to choose one of the Tendo daughters as a fiancee? I don't… OW! Ranma, stop yelling so loud; you are giving me a headache." said Ranko holding her head with her hands.

"Get warm water so you can beat the tar out of father? Ranma, calm down and explain to me what that idiot father of ours has done." as Ranko slowly pulled her hands from her head the expression on her face got darker and darker.

"What's wrong with Ranko?" asked Ukyo nervously.

"Ranko and Ranma share a mental link with each other, much stronger than one Pai and Parvati developing," said Pai "That because we are two people that share same body." smiled Pai as Parvati did the mental equivalent of putting her head in her hands.

Smiling evilly Ranko opened up her third eye. "She has three eyes," said Ukyo backing away.

"Of course, all Sanjiyan Unkara have three eyes." smiled Pai.

Gesturing a small bird demon appeared in Ranko's hand. "I have a task for you little one. Tell the following story to Kasumi." she then whispered into the bird's ear at length "Now go."

"What was that about?" asked Ukyo.

"Wait for it. Wait for it. Yep figured she'd hit him this way."

"AAAGGGHHH." said the white meteor better known as Saotome Genma as it came down and made a spectacular crater.

"Pops? Oh Pops. Hmm seems Kasumi got a little angrier than I expected; the amazing flying idiot is out cold." commented Ranko on the smoldering and twitching form in the crater. "Sorry about that, Ucchan, but your revenge will have to wait a little while as right now I doubt the baka could feel much of anything. Or explain why he did it."

Cocking her head to the side Ranko said out loud "Feed his oversized belly? I hope you are wrong, Ranma. Why? It's obvious. Given the way he keeps trying to steal food from our plate I find it hard he'd stop engaging you for food with Ucchan."

"Nabiki, I want you to look at Genma with your third eye but don't try to pull at the image you see." said Ranko suddenly.

"I see the image of a black twisted figure of a man. His hands are like claws and his body is emaciated beyond belief. Its horrible." shaking her head Nabiki looked at Ranko, "What did I just see?! It was nightmarish."

"You saw the soul of a man who prevented his son from having any meaningful social life for 10 years, who cared more for the goal of making his son the best martial artist of his generation than for his son's welfare, who saw all people as merely tools to achieving this goal and for feeding his belly. In short you saw the soul of my father."

"I can see souls?" said Nabiki. For a moment the amount of money this ability could make flashed in her head but it was as quickly followed by an image of the twisted THING that was Saotome Genma's soul. "What is happening to him?"

"He is well along the way to becoming something akin to a Pretas or Shiryo. This is what his single minded obsession has twisted his soul into." Ranko sighed. "The most pathetic thing is he doesn't even know it."

"We still have a few minutes before class starts why don't you go over the agreement Genma made and see if there is an way to restore your honor." said Ranko.

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The students entering the class room noticed Ranko in Ranma's seat, her face as dark as a storm cloud. They also noticed that the tannin teacher was nervously looking through his notes occasional looking at the fuming girl. In the desk next to Ranko sat her sister who asked "Pai not understand. Ranma say in Japan one is supposed to only have one wife so how can father engage Ranma to Ukyo when there was already agreement with Tendo family?" On the other side sat a boy with a huge spatula on his back and beside him sat a small sad looking girl.

"Because Pai, Pops is an idiot who thinks with his stomach rather than his head. My concern is what other little pieces of stupidity are coming our way." Ranko rubbed her temples with both hands as she turned to the boy. "Let be see if I have this straight, Ucchan. Thanks to Oyaji taking your dowry you have been living as a boy for the last 10 years and cannot go back to being a girl until you either get revenge on both Pops and Ranma or marry Ranma."

"That is right, Ranko." said Ucchan

"After school we need to have a game of pound the Panda provided he has recovered from Kasumi by then. Let me see if I can bring out any details that might help." Ranko then stared into space and then sighed, "Wonderful. Seems there is one little detail you and Ranma failed to tell your parents; the fact that you had already supposedly lost the dowry to that Bakuchioh King creep."

"Who Bakuchioh King?" asked Pai.

"The self proclaimed Games of Chance Grandmaster. Going over my brother's memories I don't think he was all that skilled as Ranma doesn't remember him gambling with adults, just children. Anyway Ranma and Ukyo knocked him out and rolled him up in a mat and threw him someplace after he beat Ukyo. He looked like the King in a deck of European playing cards and Ukyo should have remembered him showing up for his 'prize'. That he didn't makes me think he was little more than a scam artist which means there is no help there in solving our current problem."

Pai frowned, "Why not we do like with me and sisters? Adopt Ukyo into clan?"

Ranko nodded her head. "You know Pai that is likely the best solution. I have this nagging feeling that this is not the only time Oyaji did something he should not have to feed his belly. Adopting Ukyo would solve her honor problem without endangering my brother's in the process. Since our Ryu pulls things from others like a more expansive version of Bruce Lee's Jeet Kune Do Ukyo can still practice her Ryu under ours."

"I'll have to think about that sugar." Ukyo said.

"Ranma...," started Sayuri.

"As my brother tried to explain last week _I_ am Ranko." said Ranko in cross tone, "Just because we share the same body does not mean we are the same person; thought each of us does see and hear everything the other does. This is my week just as last week was Ranma's, not that some morons in gym class cared."

Sham Pu frowned, "Sham Pu think perhaps it is fact that you and Ranma see and hear what the other does that worry her."

"Why would that concern her? Ranko bathe with Pai and Sham Pu in cold running rivers. That mean Ranma see both of us without clothes." said Pai cocking her head to the side as the other girls blanched at the statement.

Sham Pu shrugged her shoulders, "Sham Pu not know but remember Akane's morning battle and the True Blunder? With that kind of behavior going on Sham Pu understand why girls here concerned."

Pai frowned, "Is that what Ranko mean about boys here doing their thinking below the waistline?"

"If you can call listening to the rantings of the school baka thinking, yes," Ranko said her face grim, "The only way they could be any dumber would be if they behaved like the self proclaimed boyfriend Sham Pu told us on the way here."

Sham Pu made a face, "Ugh. Very idea of all school males behaving like Mousse give Shampoo bad mental images. Hopefully not have bad dreams tonight."

"Or if you do hope they are nothing like the ones Ranma and I had after my first period. In some ways those were worse than the actual experience." said Ranko shuddering a little.

"Given your father's attitude it must have been particularly rough." said Akane softly.

"Akane have that right. Only narrow minded male could think woman weak. Stupid Panda Man not have to deal with monthly visitor." fumed Sham Pu.

"Ironically it was _that_ that really shattered any faith Ranma had in the idiocy about women being weak Pops taught him. Anyone who could go through _that_ on a monthly basis and not go nuts certainly was not weak." said Ranko shaking her head.

Pai frowned, "Pai think of something. Before Pool of Drowned Girl sister Parvati only out for brief periods of time. Will she know how to deal with monthly visitor?"

"Unlike me, Parvati will have your knowledge to go on. Besides it is not like it is your body's first time. Those are both points in her favor." said Ranko.

The bell rang and the tannin teacher stood. "Class I would like you to meet our two new students. Would you please introduce yourselves."

The student with the spatula stood, "I am Kuonji Ukyo a childhood friend of Ranma and my martial arts specialty is Okonomiyaki Kakuto." Ukyo then sat down.

The small sad girl tentatively stood, "I'm Tomoe Hotaru. I am living with the Tendos as my father was possessed by a demon." Hotaru seemed to consider something and then timidly sat back down.

The tannin teacher nodded and started teaching the class.

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Nerima had always been the focus of weird stuff for decades but things had really gotten bizarre over the last couple of weeks. The residents took in it typical stride; after all wasn't it a testament to the Japanese spirit to take the most adverse conditions in stride? If their parents and grandparents could stoically handle Tokyo being firebombed into ash during WWII then they could handle powerful beyond all reason martial artists, 3 eyed girls, and monsters seemingly from the depth of one's worst nightmares popping up. This is the reason that the sight of a 3 foot high old woman using her staff like a pogo stick going down the street barely attracted any attention.

Ke Lun was not happy. The Kiss of Death law had resulted in making a Sanjiyan Unkara a potential enemy of the Tribe. She had always felt in a world where magic abounded and Kami like Sa Fulang lived among mortals that the Law was just asking for trouble. She hated it when she was proven right in the worse way. Now here she was in a foreign land looking for an angry Sanjiyan Unkara to ask forgiveness and to bring back her great granddaughter back for punishment. How it made her blood boil that the other Elders wouldn't accept it was the stupid law not her great granddaughter that was at fault for this mess. She also couldn't shake the feeling that something bad had already happened.

That the Sanjiyan Unkara had spoke Japanese but not Chinese or Mandarin puzzled Ke Lun but that and the fact the Sanjiyan Unkara had gone _east_ not west had forced her to look in Japan rather than the Kunlun Mountains of Tibet. Her efforts were rewarded when she read several tabloid papers which described the appearance of what could only be a flying jaw. She couldn't believe her good fortune she knew exactly where in this large country to go - Tokyo, Nerima district, Furinkan High School. Now that she was here she went over exactly how to approach the Sanjiyan Unkara. This would push all her training as an Elder to the limits for this battle would not be won with martial arts but with words.

Ke Lun arrived at Furinkan High School in time for lunch. Quickly looking over the grounds she spotted two girls matching the description of the Sanjiyan Unkara and her companion sister. She seemed to be engaged in lively conversation with some other girls and a boy with huge strange looking pole arm on his back. They all sat under a tree to eat their lunches and she moved in to listen in.

"So what is making me weak in not natural, Ranko?" said the smallest girl.

"That is right, Hotaru. While a Tei-Chin-Chii-Chii-Chong will eventually expire in restoring spirit energy if it doesn't rest that takes time. Minutes even hours. The one I tried to heal your Ki with expired in seconds." said Ranko.

"So what is causing it?" asked the boy.

"I have a very bad idea on that but I hope that I am wrong, Ucchan." sighed Ranko. "Nabiki you have a compact?"

"Yes but I take it's not for prettying yourself up?"

"Right. Hotaru, I had you transform because you were so weak when Pai woke you up." handing her the compact Ranko said "I want you to open the compact and use your evil sensing power on the image you see."

"But that will be my own reflection." stammered Hotaru.

"Exactly." Ranko then turned her eyes to the other girl, "Akane I want you to look at Hotaru with your third eye but do not pull on the image you see. Understand?"

"Yes, Ranko."

'Look at someone with her third eye?!' thought Ku Lun 'That means that girl Akane is also a Sanjiyan Unkara.'

"No it can't be." cried Hotaru as she dropped the compact, "I can't be evil."

"Ranko I think I'm doing something wrong. I see two forms here." said Akane.

"Can you describe them?" asked Ranko.

"Well there is a beautiful form that looks like an adult Hotaru. It is white with golden tones. The other form is a black as night old crone with claws and fangs." said Akane as she shook her head "The second form also has a dark red aura around it."

Ranko sighed, "I was afraid of this. The golden form you saw was Hotaru's actually soul, the one her powers are linked to. The second form is the problem. It's most likely the same kind of demonic being that possessed her father and is having him summon those soul stealing demons all over the place." Ranko then put her hand on Hotaru "That is what your power saw--the evil of the being that is trying to take control of you. YOU yourself are not evil."

"Pai understand. Demon draining Hotaru's life essence to become strong. That why Hotaru is weak all the time."

"Exactly. We still have some months time before it will be able a start controlling her in either form though it will take longer to control her in her transformed state. Unfortunately the demon will eventually become powerful enough to control Hotaru regardless of what form she is in." said Ranko.

"Is there something we can do?" asked Akane.

"You must remember than Parvati and I are young as Sanjiyan Unkara go. There are likely many options we could try but we just don't know of them. Right now I know of only one and it's a drastic one." looking down at the ground she continued "If we use it Hotaru will _neve_r be able to have a normal life. She may not even be able to transform into a magical girl again either."

"Pai not understand, neither does Parvati."

"Don't you? The demon is like a fire and what are the two things a fire needs to burn? Fuel and air. The magic around us is the air and there is no way to cut that off so all is left is to cut off the demon's fuel supply."

"But the demon is feeding off her life essence." said Pai.

"Or to be more accurately feeding off her soul." said Ranko brushing away Pai's hair allowing everyone even Ke Lun to see the mark of Wu on the girl's forehead.

"Wu." said Akane in a hushed voice. "Wu have no soul. Their soul resides in their Sanjiyan Unkara creator."

"Actually Wu have to have a soul otherwise Parvati could not have made Ranma her Wu. However that aside a Sanjiyan Unkara can only have one Wu at a time." said Ranko solemnly "There are only three ways for one to stop being Wu that I know of. For the Sanjiyan Unkara to be killed which given that two souls have merged likely causes all kinds of problems, for the Wu's remaining soul to be consumed by a Kiyatu, or for the Sanjiyan Unkara to become human which given the magic that affects us is not an option."

"Who cares? Get this demon out of me. I don't want my mind to be consumed by some demon and use my magical girl power for evil. Make me Wu." screamed a hysterical Hotaru.

"You have NO idea of what you are asking." hissed Ranko "A Wu is unaffected by aging. You will see everyone around you grow old and die before your eyes even your own children and grand children. You will be the target of every monster and demon out there who want to possess your Sanjiyan Unkara's power of immortality. And if your Sanjiyan Unkara dies then you could die perhaps FOREVER; no reincarnation or heaven just total oblivion."

"And if the demon burns my soul away? That fate already awaits me. Please make me Wu." cried Hotaru as she depowered.

"She couldn't even if she wanted to. Ranko already has a Wu and so does Parvati." said Nabiki.

Hotaru looked up "You don't and neither does Akane. And you're Sanjiyan Unkara as well."

"Hey don't look at me." said Nabiki holding up her hands, "I'm still getting the basics of spirit summoning down. I haven't the knowledge to properly train a Wu."

"What would happen if Hotaru was made Wu and then the Water was poured over her?" asked Akane.

"Pai think she become like Pai, both Sanjiyan Unkara and Wu."

"The power of a Sanjiyan Unkara would increase her ability to be a Wu, correct?"

"Akane, what is going through your head?" scowled Nabiki.

"Something so crazy it might just work." cupping the girl's face in her hands Akane looked at Hotaru "Hotaru are you sure about this? I mean we could find another way to do this tomorrow."

"And tomorrow could be 20 years away. My power could destroy the world if misused. This will make sure it is never misused." cried Hotaru. "Besides other than my father I have been alone my entire life. This way I know that there will always be someone who cares for me."

"You know as much about spirit magic as I do Akane. You can't make her Wu." smirked Nabiki.

"Wrong, Nabiki. Very wrong. There was a reason Ranko told us not to try to pull at the soul images we saw." Akane narrowed her third eye causing a beam of light to flash from it on to Hotaru's chest and then focused it into a thin cone. A round blob went from Hotaru's chest and into Akane's eye. Almost immediately a black form rose from Hotaru's body screeching. "You will not prevent us from bring Silence to this world." hissed the barely humanoid shape.

"Sorry human souls just went off the menu," said Ranko grabbing the form and throwing it away.

"Kami Sama is that that THING what was trying to control Hotaru?" gasped Nabiki. Akane only nodded.

The abomination rose from the ground, "The girl is my host. The will of Pharaoh 90 will not be deigned. I, Mistress 9, will insure that Silence will come to this world." ranted the thing as much of the student body decided that it had finally seen enough and started running like crazy from the horror now before them.

"Without your little snack you're Mistress 0 in my book. Eat martial arts spirit magic ugly. Kuan-Yaa Cha-Lieh-Chong combo" The Ki that flew from Ranko's hand formed changed into a dragon that breathed Cha-Lieh-Chong all over the demon blasting it clear across the grounds.

"What is this?" screamed the horror as it tried to hold its form together while getting up. Which echoed the thoughts of Setsuna who ran out to see what was going on.

"Met the Sanjiyan Unkara Ganso Musabetsu Kakuto Ryu. Today's lesson Demon Eradication 101. It is advised that you take detailed notes." smirked Ranko.

'Ganso Musabetsu Kakuto Ryu?! But that is that is Happosai's school. How did a Sanjiyan Unkara learn that thieving lecher's school?' thought Ku Lun.

"I will kill you." screeched the thing lunging foreword.

"For threatening the students who strive to improve themselves I Sailor Moon in the name of the moon shall punish you." said a voice from one of the buildings.

"A little more on fighting and little less on speeches would be welcome right now. This thing is way tougher than it looks." after punting the thing away Ranko glancing over at the building and saw five girls in sailor fukus on top of it.

"I will find another host. I will bring the Silence to this world." said the thing as it blasted the building the girls were on. It then followed up by clawing at the girls when they fell to the ground who for the most part ran away from the thing like chickens with their heads cut off.

'I hope these are not the Sailor Scouts. They're pathetic as fighters. Worse as long as they are tangling with Mistress Ugly my Kuan-Yaa Cha-Lieh-Chong combo is useless. They keep doing that and the Ki holding him together will fade. I need to come up with a new battle plan.'

"No, you will not have another host. You will not take another girl's father away from her. You will not destroy another young girl's life." yelled Hotaru. Pulling her henshin stick above her head she yelled "Saturn Eternal Power! Make Up!"

"Hotaru no! You have no idea what that will do." yelled Ranko.

Hotaru felt more powerful than she ever had before. Dozens of new attacks filled her head. Looking down she saw not the body of a young girl but of a full grown woman. Waving her hand a mammoth pole arm appeared in her hand.

Running up to the demon as it blasted at the other girls Hotaru screamed "Eat Silence Glaive you heartless bitch." Turning around the demon got the weapon shoved into its stomach. "Time to go back to whatever hell spawned you." Pulling back on the Glaive just slightly and smiling wickedly she said "Cha-Lieh-Chong".

The demon screamed as the Exploding Tearing Bug lived up to its name. Unfortunately Hotaru was right on top of the blast and got a good amount of it as well. Setsuna had moved up puzzled at the new but strangely familiar attack Sailor Saturn had just demonstrated and was rewarded by getting drenched by demon and human innards. Then smoke formed everywhere, gathered together, and everybody got to see a human body reconstructed from the inside out.

The Sailor Scouts were sickened at the sight before them. Three of them promptly threw up. Only her martial arts training kept Sailor Jupiter from losing her lunch while Mercury went into an analyze everything mode to keep from losing hers. Akane and Nabiki watched each wondering why they weren't sickened by the sight of Hotaru being reformed or that the school ground where covered with bits of demon. Ukyo by contrast was now dry heaving.

Setsuna just stood there drenched head to foot in gore remembering how she had initially judged a race Queen Serenity had just made a treaty with. Because they summoned demons calling some of them friends she had thought that Queen Serenity had been tricked and these people were evil. The ability to create soulless guardians removed all doubts from her mind. She was on her way to warn Queen Serenity when Queen Beryl attacked. Wanting to prevent a two front war she had put a barrier around those people. Only after the near total destruction of the Moon Kingdom did she learn the truth. Those people had helped found the Silver Millennium. Every piece of magic the Sailor Scouts possessed originated with those people. Their guardians were normally chosen with the utmost care and they often became human if they felt they were becoming too aloof and cold. In fact her own mother had been one who had gone through the humanization process after Setsuna had been born.

In an act based on bigotry and not on facts she had condemned the Silver Millennium to oblivion by cutting off access by its founders. Her attempt at creating Crystal Tokyo was an effort to redeem herself. But now it was obvious founders of the Silver Millennium were back and they did NOT like the future she had planned. Setsuna collapsed weeping for herself and what her mother's people the Sanjiyan Unkara must think of her.

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[Author's notes: The Sanjiyan Holy land is actually in another dimension and I have set the planets of the Silver Millennium in other dimension as well - it addresses a lot of logic problems the Sailor Moon series has with the way we know the planets to be. This will be an important issue in a later chapter when Black Lady shows up.

Since the Sanjiyan Unkara are immortal and the foes the Sailor Scouts fight generally drain the soul or spirit in some way I felt that having the Sailor Scout's power being Sanjiyan Unkara based made sense. It also allows me to address why Sailor Pluto allowed the original version of Crystal Tokyo to be so flawed; she was so messed up with guilt as not to be thinking straight. It also provides her with a reason to do something really stupid later on.

Having Mistress 9 destroyed this early on and Hotaru go Wu may have some wondering but there is a reason for this. It gives her less destructive (and therefore more useful) attacks. It also allows me to create a disconnect between her and Pharaoh 90.


	8. Chap 08 Dispositions

Ranma 1/2 is the creation of Rumiko Takahashi, 3x3 eyes (Sazan Eyes) is the creation of Yuzo Takada, Sailor Moon is the creation of Naoko Takeuchi. All are used without permission. This fan-fiction isn't intended for commercial use but is rather a tribute to Ranma 1/2, 3X3 Eyes, and Sailor Moon.

Chapter 8 Dispositions

Hotaru opened her eyes and saw the clear blue sky above her with clouds gently moving through it. "Oh, what happened?"

"Nothing much, you only blew up that horror that had been trying to take you over. Did a good number on yourself as well." said Ranko standing over her.

"I blew myself up?" wondered Hotaru.

"Yep. Took you a good couple of minutes to reform too. With all the hormonal idiots here its a good thing your magical girl outfit also reformed. Otherwise you would have been surrounded by ogling boys."

Getting up Hotaru noticed that there were bits of demon scattered all over the school yard. Her eyes settled on a women in a suit covered in gore kneeling on the grass crying. "Who is she?"

"Says her name is Meiou Setsuna and keeps asking her mother to forgive her. I think she is in emotional shock." frowned Ranko. "The other magical girls are in little better shape. I was able to find out they are indeed the Sailor Scouts but they are in much the same state as Meiou-sama there."

Akane walked over nervously, "How do you feel, Hotaru?"

"Fine, Akane. So this is what it is like to be Wu." Hotaru said looking down at herself.

"Well not exactly." said Ranko scratching the back of her head nervously "Oh the indestructibility is part of being Wu as is the lack of major pain when injured. But the change in age definitely is not. That I suspect that is the power of Wu interacting with your Magical Girl powers."

"I did gain the knowledge of a whole host of attacks and defensive spells. Things like Cha-Lieh-Chong and Shi-Tao-Chon for attack and Chin-Kuuus for defense." said Hotaru.

"Strange those are all Sanjiyan Unkara spirit spells most commonly used by a Wu." Ranko's eyes narrowed and then widened "What in the world? Your magical girl aura is very close to that of Sanjiyan Unkara magic."

"You mean her power of transformation is a type of Sanjiyan Unkara magic?" asked Akane.

"No, there are several differences but it most definitely based on Sanjiyan Unkara magic."

"How come you didn't notice that before?"

"To tell the truth I didn't look to see what her magical aura was before." shrugged Ranko, "My knowledge in magic auras is quite limited. Right now all I _can_ identify is Sanjiyan Unkara magic. I can tell this magic is close but as to what it actually IS?" Ranko sighed "I haven't got clue one."

"What what _are_ you people?" yelled the Sailor Scout in the long ponytails.

"The magic I am detecting from them is very close to that of the Silver Millennium, Sailor Moon." said the girl with the blue hair her eyes on the visor she was wearing.

"They're from the Silver Millennium?!" asked the tall brunette in surprise.

"Mercury that's nuts!" said the girl in the red outfit who resembled Akane.

"I didn't say that. I just said their magic is very close to the same we use." said Sailor Mercury in a tone devoid of emotion. The other Sailor Scouts were discussing or rather arguing about Mercury's findings.

Ranko noticed that Pai was walking up to the Sailor Scouts with the strangest expression on her face. Looking at Sailor Moon she cocked her head to one side. "Queen Serenity?" she asked in awe.

All the Sailor Scouts suddenly stopped talking and looked at the girl in front of them. The question snapped Meiou Setsuna out of the past and into the present. Looking up she got up and slowly walked toward the group.

Ranko looked at her sister "Pai, who is Queen Serenity?"

"Queen Serenity is name of woman in portrait Pai has." said Pai as she removed her backpack and pulled out the picture.

"Kami-Sama" said Mercury "That picture..."

"Mercury what about the picture?" said Sailor Mars angrily.

"Mars, that picture is over 12,000 years old."

All three of Nabiki's eyes opened to the size of dinner plates again, "Twe. twel, Twelve, 12,000 years old?!" she finally got out. Akane's, Hotaru's, and even Ranko's mouths hung open in stunned amazement.

Ukyo moved towards Pai puzzled 'I don't understand. I heard of cave paintings that are older.' She took a look at the painting and was stunned by what she saw.

The painting resembled one done by any one of a number of now forgotten Renaissance painters to honor some member of a royal household. The woman in it sat on chair and was clad in a fine gown with a tiara on her head. However Ukyo did notice two interesting aspects about the painting. First was the smile the woman wore. It was the smile a woman would show to great her favorite son or daughter when they came home the type of smile that reflected the soul of a caring and loving person. Then there were the eyes. In addition to the warmth and caringness shown in the smile there was a hint of firmness in them. This was not a woman who would sit back if her children was in danger; this was a woman who would fight and even die for the welfare of her children. But to this woman her children were her subjects.

"Excuse me." said a voice as gloved hands moved the picture so the one wearing them could better see the picture. Ukyo was broken out of her fascination with the painting and looked at the owner of the gloves. And saw a younger version of the woman in the painting with a sad expression on her face. "No, I'm not Queen Serenity; I'm Sailor Moon. From what Luna has told me she was my mother in a past life. The ruler of the Moon Kingdom which is now long gone. The Queen of the Silver Millennium."

"That mean you like Pai's sister." said Pai with tears in her eyes.

"I don't understand" said Sailor Moon.

"Pai's father said it, 'The Queen is dead. Long live the Queen.' Parvati's mother was queen of Sanjiyan Unkara. Parvati III now, with the rest of her people, dead. Princess Parvati IV now Queen of Sanjiyan Unkara, a kingdom that died 300 years ago. You're the daughter of Moon Kingdom Queen, she now dead. You now also Queen of a kingdom that no longer exists." said Pai as she gently took the picture and put it back in her backpack.

"Where did you get that picture?" asked Sailor Venus.

"Pai not sure but Pai think it done by Pai and Parvati's mother, Parvati III to be gift by Aunt."

The same thought echoed though six minds 'She thinks her _mother_ painted that picture?!'

Ukyo looked at the girl in front of her. "But how?"

Pai looked at Ukyo in puzzlement, "Sanjiyan Unkara are immortal and eternally young. When we feel we are becoming too cold and distant we go and become human. Pai achieved this just recently and is now sister's Wu."

"Wu? That is what Akane turned Hotaru into isn't it." said Ukyo trying to push the memories of what she had just seen out of her head.

"Yes a Sanjiyan Unkara normally creates a Wu by pulling part of the subject's soul out and merging it with their own." Pai then frowned "Jusenkyo made it clear entire soul not pulled out; something Pai and Parvati did not know."

Ke Lun stiffened as she remembered the only covered pool in Jusenkyo, the pool of Drowned Female Sanjiyan Unkara. In the ancient books of her people Ku Lun had learned that the tournament had been created so her tribe could determine who would have the honor of diving into that pool once a real Sanjiyan Unkara had given his or her blessing. But no real Sanjiyan Unkara ever been found to give the blessing and the original purpose of the tournament had eventually faded from memory and even from the Book of Law the Nujiezu (or as the Japanese called them Joketsuzoku) carried with them. It was only in researching the Sanjiyan Unkara that Ke Lun had discovered the truth.

"Speaking of Jusenkyo. We have got to find a better place to store that water than where it is right now." said Nabiki still shaken by how long she could really live.

Ranko tapped her finger to her chin in thought "I think it as safe where it is as it could be anywhere."

"I agree." said Akane, "Remember that we know that Genma's actions turned a friend of Ranma's into an enemy because he thought Ranma had walked out of a duel when in fact Genma knocked him out? Who knows how many more of those there are out there. At least by keeping the water where it is now there is less chance on one of these little problems of Genma getting their hands on it than if we put it somewhere else."

"Ah what fair maidens does the Blue Thunder see before him." exclaimed Kuno who had gone out in his words 'to fight the servants of the foul sorcerer Saotome.' Of course he then leaped out the window (forgetting he was on the third floor) and knocked himself out and missed the fight. Sadly for everybody at school he was only out for a few minutes.

"Who is this?" asked Sailor Moon.

"'What is this?' would be a better question." said Ranko angrily. "Look Kuno. You had the boys of this school fighting Akane for a date, then you come on to my sister Parvati while telling Akane you would go on to challenging her for a date. Then you come on to me and now you are coming on the Sailor Scouts. Do you do all what you call thinking below the waistline?!"

"Ah noble one cannot you see the great manliness before you?"

"Sure if your definition of manliness is the same as that chauvinistic drivel my father kept shoving in Ranma's head. If there is any woman in Tokyo who thinks Genma's idiocy or your behavior is truly manly they should go out and get their head examined."

Somewhere in Tokyo a woman named Saotome Nodoka sneezed. 'Oh I know my son Ranma is so manly.' she thought. As the same time Ranko felt Ranma mentally shudder.

'What's wrong?' Ranko thought

'Just a bad feeling.'

'Probably just too much of the school baka.'

'Yeh a little of him goes a LONG way.'

"Ucchan can Pai borrow this?"

"Sure" said Ukyo not really paying attention.

"Kuno-sama? Pai have something for you."

"Ah divine one you have a gift for the great Blue Thunder. What is it a kiss? A date?"

"No it's called KUNO NO BAKA." at which point Kuno got a face full of battle spatula.

"What a fierce tigress. The Blue Thunder is greatly blessed to be loved by so many women. The Blue Thunder will take a nap now." Kuno said passing out.

"Thank you Ucchan." said Pai as she handed back the battle spatula.

"It appears that even the gentle Pai has her limits in stupidity." smirked Ranko.

"'Loved by so many women?' That guy can't be serious." said Mars.

"Kuno is in his own little world." explained Nabiki.

"Fine but why can't he be in it in a jacket with nice long sleeves while in a room with nice padded walls?" grumbled Sailor Jupiter running her hand though her brunette hair to stave off a headache.

"He's rich. Need I say more?" asked Akane.

"Speaking of saying more," smirked Nabiki, "is someone going to ask the old woman in the tree to come down and explain why she been spying on us nearly this whole time?"

"I was wondering when someone was going to notice her." laughed Ranko.

"I should have known better then to try on spy on Sanjiyan Unkara." said Ke Lun jumping down from the tree and using her staff like a pogo stick to hop over.

"You shouldn't feel bad. Even without martial arts training Sanjiyan Unkara can manipulate Ki and Chakra at a level rivaling a martial artist with decades of training. Throw in some training in martial arts and you tend to get abilities beyond that of any _normal human_ martial artist could achieve."

"Mind telling us who you are?" asked Nabiki.

"Not at all. I am Elder Ke Lun of the Joketsuzoku. I am here regarding the situation my great grand daughter created with the Kiss of Death."

"Joketsuzoku?" asked Mars.

"Japanese for Nujiezu. They are a tribe of woman warriors who live in the Qinghai provence of China which is where the Kunlun Mountains also are. Those mountains are where the main gate to the Sanjiyan Holy Land can be found." said Ranko all three of her eyes opening up. "The Joketsuzoku also have some pretty STUPID ways of dealing with outsiders." she finished glaring at Ke Lun.

"Honored One, you must understand..." started Ke Lun.

"Oh I UNDERSTAND all right. Saying that there is a Law that if an outsider female defeats a female Joketsuzoku has to be hunted down and killed is crazy enough but that it in reality a test is utter stupidity of the highest order. Didn't it occur to the full fledged baka that came up with this idea that it could wind up ticking off the wrong being? Or did they just have some kind of tribal death wish?"

Ke Lun found looking at the ground better than trying to meet Ranko's gaze "I know that the Kiss of Death test was a bad idea but the other Elders were too hidebound to accept my arguments. Even now they want to blame this mess on my great grand daughter rather than admit that the test is flawed and when you get right down to it dangerous."

"Dangerous is an understatement." said Ranko getting a tired look in her eyes, "You said that the other Elders want to blame Sham Pu. I take that means you're not hopping around Japan just to find me but Sham Pu as well."

"Yes. I am supposed to bring back Sham Pu back for punishment."

"Punish her for trying to enforce an admittedly flawed Law of your people?!" exclaimed Akane her three eyes wide open and filled with anger. "Well listen to me granny. You can go and tell the other Elders of your backwater little tribe that Shampoo is forever out of their reach. If she does come back it will long after their own great grand daughters have died OF OLD AGE!"

Ke Lun stepped back in stunned silence. The bad feeling she had this morning returned with a vengeance. Looking at Ranko she stammered "Honored One, you didn't make her Wu?"

Ranko was puzzled by the look of fear in Ke Lun's eyes. "Before I answer that why does the idea frighten you so? It isn't due to that old falsehood that we consume the soul of our Wu is it?"

"Consume your Wu's soul?!" stammered Hotaru backing away from Akane in horror.

"A misconception." said Ranko raising her hand to clam the girl. "While we do pull part of our future's Wu's soul out of its body the soul fragment is NOT consumed but rather merges with that of the Sanjiyan Unkara creator." Ranko paused and turned to Hotaru, "Only someone very skilled in spirit magic or martial arts could tell the difference. Parvati said that misconception created no end of headaches for her people with demons hunters and other well meaning but misinformed heroes."

Ke Lun shook her head "No the old text I found said as much. It is my people view on the role of Wu that I fear. The Joketsuzoku believe that the Wu is little more than undying soulless warrior slave whose only function was to protect its Sanjiyan Unkara master." Ke Lun shifted her staff a bit "Regardless of my feelings on the matter Sham Pu would be regard with pity if she returned to the Joketsuzoku as Wu. To be an object of pity is worst than death for a Joketsuzoku warrior."

"And what are your people's feelings on the pool Drowned Female Sanjiyan Unkara." asked a still angry Akane.

"Ironically the old text revealed that the tournament Ranko got involved in was originally created so with a blessing from a Sanjiyan Unkara that our best warrior would dive into the pool and become an Honored One." Ke Lun frowned "but no Sanjiyan Unkara was ever found to give a blessing and eventually the true purpose of the tournament was lost to living memory."

Pai smiled "Then Ke Lun should be happy, Pai's Sanjiyan Unkara sister Parvati agree with Pai's plan to make Sham Pu and friends Sanjiyan Unkara."

Ke Lun fell off her staff, "You made my great grand daughter Sanjiyan Unkara?" she asked in utter bewilderment.

"Only half. Warm water turns her back to human. Since our human selves are each other Wu Parvati and I am not sure how the whole Sanjiyan Unkara/Wu/Jusenkyo thing really works." Ranko then paused for a moment "The one thing we DO know is the transformation has no effect on being Wu. So even in our Sanjiyan Unkara forms we have all the advantages of Wu." Ranko smiled "Parvati was stunned when I cut myself real bad training Pai and healed immediately just like a Wu." Running her hand along the edge of the Silence Glaive Ranko then cut her hand down to the bone.

"What are you doing?" exclaimed Sailor Moon.

"Watch and learn." for a few seconds nothing happened and then smoke came from Ranko's hand and the wounds closed and soon it was as if the hand had suffered no injury at all.

"If your people are immortal then I imagine you're going to have quite interesting things to tell us in my history class." said Meiou Setsuna shakily staring at Ranko's hand.

"Ah Meiou-sama you're back with us." smiled Ranko.

"I wasn't aware I had left and please call me Setsuna." said Setsuna smiling.

"You were babbling there for a while. Something about asking your mother forgiving you." said Ranko in a concerned voice.

Setsuna thought for a while and decided that given the state the Time Gates were in she was largely useless as Sailor Pluto. If she was going to have any hope of getting Time Gate working right again she was going to need the help of the people who helped founded the Silver Millennium. That meant being more open than usual with some personal secrets.

"I encountered the Sanjiyan Unkara long ago and prejudged them as evil simply because were friends with the demons they summoned. I also didn't understand what a Wu really was. Only after I did something really stupid did I find out the truth and that my own mother had been a Sanjiyan Unkara who had become human after I was born." Setsuna weakly smiled "I remember growing up with Queen Serenity. That should give you a rough idea of how old I am."

"You're a Sanjiyan Unkara?" asked Akane stunned.

"No. My father was human. At best I am half Sanjiyan Unkara. Long ago in the past of this world there was something called the Moon Kingdom also known as the Silver Millennium. Turns out my mother's people the Sanjiyan Unkara created every spell and magic item used in the Silver Millennium. Without the Sanjiyan Unkara there would have been no Moon Kingdom or Sailor Senshi."

"So how do you fit into all this?" asked Hotaru.

"I too am a Sailor Scout. The last living one of the Silver Millennium."

"Seven." said Hotaru softly as a wondrous realization occurred to her. "Do each of you have an item that has a strange symbol on it?" she asked.

"Why do you want to know?" asked Mars suspiciously.

Hotaru ran over to the tree where her school backpack lay and pulled out six sheets of paper from her notebook. "Put your symbol on this page large enough that we can see it" she said handing five out and keeping the sixth for herself.

Sailor Moon shrugged her shoulder. What harm could there be to granting the girl's or rather woman's request. Thought it did take a little prodding to get Mars and Jupiter to comply.

After everyone had turned over their pages Hotaru asked "Pai, do you recognize these symbols?"

"Yes Pai recognize all of them."  
"Hotaru's symbol is that for lead."  
Pointing to the symbol Sailor Moon held "That silver."  
then to Mercury's symbol, "That quicksilver or mercury."  
then to Venus's symbol, "that copper."  
then to Mars's symbol, "that iron."  
and finally Jupiter's symbol, "and that is tin."

"Seven scouts, seven alchemic metals, seven planets. Don't you see?"

Sailor Moon shook her head, "Sorry but the moon isn't a planet."

"Actually to alchemists of centuries past it WAS." commented Pai.

Hotaru looked at Setsuna, "There is only one alchemic metal left, you must be gold."

Setsuna smiled sadly 'This Sailor Saturn is so unlike the one of the Silver Millennium. That one was moody and at times down right callous. Nothing like the girl before me. How do I dash her dream? Nothing to be done; we need to trust each other and lasting trust is not built on lies.'

"I'm sorry my dear but I am Sailor Pluto, a planet unknown in the heydays of alchemy." Setsuna chuckled "In fact today modern astronomers are debating if it should even be called a planet." Setsuna smiled warmly and put her hand on Hotaru's shoulder "But don't let that trouble you. You are still a Sailor Scout. You're Sailor Saturn."

"Does explain the name SILVER Millennium though." said Ranko thoughtfully looking at Sailor Moon's symbol.

"We need to go and start some planning." said Setsuna.

"Right after school." said Ranko. "You can find us at the Tendo Dojo."

"Is that where Sham Pu is?" asked Ke Lun.

"No, but I do know she is on a mission to bring back the Ningen No Zou."

Ke Lun nearly dropped her staff at that. "The Statue of Humanity?"

"Statue of Humanity?" asked Mercury.

"The greatest and most prized treasure of the Sanjiyan Unkara." said Ke Lun the awe clear in her voice.

"That is may be, but right now considering we have the Wu of a totally deranged Sanjiyan Unkara known to the Hindu's as Siva running around loose, the last thing we need is for him to get his hands on something that could destroy the world." said Nabiki using her typical Ice Queen voice.

"Destroy the world? You're kidding, right?" asked Sailor Moon.

Hotaru looked down in the ground, "No she's not. One of my attacks is Death Reborn Revolution. It is so powerful as it is able to destroy the world. If this Ningen No Zou has anything like that kind of power..."

Setsuna now was worried. What if this Ningen No Zou had power surpassing the Ginzuishou. "Just how powerful is this Ningen No Zou?"

"Even Parvati is not sure. Anyone of the Sanjiyan Unkara Kingdom who did know was killed by sister's power mad fiancé about two years before Tokugawa Tsunayoshi became Shogun of Japan." said Pai glumly.

"The important thing is we get a hold of that statue before somebody else does. At least then we won't have to worry about what is being done with the thing."

"Well there is the lunch bell. See you all after school."

"Well girls I believe you have classes to go to and I have one to teach so lets get to it." said Setsuna running to class. Only after she was in the classroom behind her desk with the student getting seated and looking a little ill in the process did she realize that her suit was still covered in demon gore. 'Kuso, its going to be a long afternoon.' she thought.

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Akane noticed that nearly every eye in the class was on Hotaru. Akane then noticed that two of the few friends she had Sayuri and Yuka were nervously looking at her. Sighing Akane sat near her two friends, "You saw what happened with Hotaru?" she asked.

Yuka nodded her light brown hair framing her frightened expression. "She blew up some sort of monster along with herself and then she reformed." Yuka said in a shaky voice.

Pai giggled, "That because Hotaru now Akane's Wu."

Yuka shrunk back into her seat "_Akane_'s Wu? But from what Ranma said last week only Sanjiyan Unkara can have Wu."

"That right. Thanks to Pool of Drown Sanjiyan Unkara whole Tendo family as well as Sham Pu is Sanjiyan Unkara." beamed Pai.

Akane closed her eyes in part so that she couldn't see the frightened nearly terrified expressions now on her two best friends faces but also to keep herself from crying. "You're frightened of me." she said gently opening all three of her eyes. "This doesn't change anything I am still Akane." she said gesturing to her three eyes.

Ranko shook her head, "While it is true that the Pool of Sanjiyan Unkara did not change your personality it did change the way you and your family interact with this world."

"Perhaps Akane's friends afraid she make them Wu." suggested Shampoo.

Akane looked at her friend's faces and then took Sayuri's hand "Is that what you are afraid of?" Akane asked nervously. When Sayuri nodded Akane suppressed a giggle and smiled, "Ranko explained that to Hotaru. A Sanjiyan Unkara can only have one Wu and that process is next to impossible to reverse."

Yuka's expression changed from fear to that of concern, "If the process is that hard to reverse then why did you select Hotaru as your Wu?"

"Because I begged to be made one." said Hotaru timidly looking at the floor, "With the limited knowledge they had it was the only way to drive out that _thing_ that was making me weak all the time. From what Ranko said it was literally consuming my soul. If Akane had not made me a Wu my body would have eventually become nothing but an empty husk hiding that monstrosity." Hotaru than looked up with tears in her eyes. "Before becoming a Wu I had this healing power. The other kids thought I was some sort of freak because of it. Is that what you now see Akane as? All she wanted to do was help me just like I wanted to help others even before I became a Magical Girl." Hotaru looked at her hands. "What good are these powers if they prevent me from getting what I really want, friends?" Hotaru said as she started to cry.

Akane got up from her chair and comforted the still adult Hotaru while the rest of the class started to get sheepish expressions on their faces. While Akane was comforting Hotaru she felt a pair of arms hug both of them. Looking up she saw the face of Sayuri, "I'm sorry Akane about how I behaved. You are right you are still our friend."

"Glad to hear that somebody else in this school has finally gotten some sense in their head." said Nabiki from the doorway.

"Nabiki, why aren't you in class?" asked Akane.

"Because our English teacher saw what happened with Hotaru and finally decided today was a good day to have a nervous breakdown and as a result our class is sans a teacher."

Yuka licked her lips, "Pai said something about all of you becoming Sanjiyan Unkara."

Nabiki smiled and opened her third eye, "You heard correctly." she said continuing to stand in the door frame, "Given our English teacher's reaction I thought I might come in and see how you were doing sis."

"Well it is going to take a little while given what happened today but I think we are fine." said Akane as Hotaru nodded.

"Well as your teacher is not giggling like crazy I better get back before the Blue Thunder recovers enough to get any dumb ideas."

"Given that he is only at best a half-wit you better hurry as he doesn't have that much to recover." said Ranko giggling.

"That is really bad, Ranko, but to some degree true." said Nabiki as she left the open door.

Further speculation about the Tendo Family's transformation had to wait as the bell signaling the start of class rung.

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[Author's note: Interestingly I started this without knowing that the Joketsuzoku and the main entrance to the Sanjiyan Holy Land (the Kunlun Mountains) were in set in the same province in China. This opens all kind of interesting things for the Musk Dynasty and especially Phoenix Mountain.

Some people may think Setsuna is being out of character here but you must realize that everything she has ever believed in and planned for has been thrown out the window. She no longer has any ideas on the future and so has grabbed the only help see can see.

On the 'proper' names I am using for the Chinese characters - these are based on the Pinyin Romanization system of their actual names which are given when they first appear in the manga. Parvati, Pai, and Ranko use these versions of the names as a sign of respect. Parvati and Pai can (and in the manga do) use a form of speech noted as 'bilingual' ie understandable to both Japanese and Chinese. Parvati and Pai are both reasonably fluent in both Chinese and Japanese. I am using ages of Ke Lun and later Happosai from the manga - they are only just over a century old there; this allows me to have Ke Lun more in awe of Pai/Parvati than if I used the over 300 years ages of the anime.

The Tokugawa Tsunayoshi reference Pai gives is also manga based. I did it this way to show that Pai/Parvati are trying to relate events in their isolated kingdom to the rest of the world. For those of you not up on your Japanese history this works out to the year 1678.


	9. Chap 09 Shattered Ideals, Broken Dreams

Ranma 1/2 is the creation of Rumiko Takahashi, 3x3 eyes (Sazan Eyes) is the creation of Yuzo Takada, Sailor Moon is the creation of Naoko Takeuchi. All are used without permission. This fan-fiction isn't intended for commercial use but is rather a tribute to Ranma 1/2, 3X3 Eyes, and Sailor Moon.

Chapter 9 Shattered Ideals, Broken Dreams

Ke Lun arrived at the Tendo Dojo before school ended and was startled by what she saw. Sanjiyan Unkara oni servants were all over the place. There were at least three of the flying jaw creatures she had heard about as a child in the yard, four harpy like creatures by the koi pond and some sort of flat bug like creature running around all over the place.

In the house she could see two men playing a game of go; the man in the brown Gi's body language showed a practitioner of the Art in decline. Ke Lun guessed he hadn't actually done any serious training or teaching in years. The balding man in the white Gi showed evidence of more recent training though it appeared his skill was nowhere near what someone dedicated to the art should have been at his age.

"Hello, there."

The man in the brown Gi looked up at Ke Lun. "WAHAHA one of the things my daughters summoned talks." he wailed tears flowing like rivers from his eyes.

"Father, that isn't an oni; that is a human being." said a sweet voice.

Ke Lun turned to met the smiling face of another Sanjiyan Unkara. "You will have to forgive my father's manners. Will you be staying for dinner?"

"Why thank you, Honored One; I, Ke Lun, would be honored. May I ask your name?"

"Tendo Kasumi, Lun-sama," said Kasumi bowing slightly to Ke Lun. Straightening up Kasumi frowned, "Father, could you please stopped crying I just cleaned that part of the house."

"Soun, perhaps it would be a good idea to listen to your daughter." said white Gi.

Soun not wanting Kasumi to send him into a wall again stopped crying and shifted into plan B - Demon Head attack. "SAOTOME IT'S ALL YOUR FAULT THAT MY FAMILY TURNS INTO THREE EYED FREAKS."

**WHAP** Soun looked over at the little old woman whose staff was now firmly planted in his head. "Sanjiyan Unkara are NOT three eye freaks. Do I make myself clear?" said Ke Lun in voice colder than Parvati's.

Perhaps it was the stress of the situation or the obvious threat but Soun's brain in its desperation found the Moko Rakuchi-sei, an old long unused method of survival that had worked in the past.

Soun immediately fell to his knees and groveled like crazy, "I am so sorry, Master; forgive me, Master Happosai."

Soun's brain made a realization 'Hey mouth that isn't **WHAM!** Never mind I'll be taking a nap now.' Soun then took a nice trip to dreamland courtesy of Ke Lun's staff.

Given that the woman was now grumbling about stupid males mistaking her for a perverted boyfriend Genma showed that yes he actually had a brain in his head by keeping his mouth shut for once. Sadly for him it was not to last.

Ke Lun looked up at male in the white Gi, "And just what are you looking at male?"

"Nothing. I just never knew the Master used to chase after much less date female trolls."

**WHAM!** And Genma joined his friend in dreamland showing that while yes he had a brain it didn't work all that well most of the time.

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Setsuna was glad the school day was finally over. She was beginning to understand just _why_ the history teacher position had been vacant for two years. She had assumed that it was because she looked like she had just done open heart surgery in her suit that her students were a little on the green side. She was stunned when she found out that it was more to due with the fact that her appearance reminded them of a little talk Ranma and Parvati had about how long it took a Wu to recover from certain types of damage. It seemed that Ranma and Parvati were VERY graphic about the types of injuries involved. That a few brave students had stayed around long enough to see Hotaru's regeneration didn't help. The unnerving thing was how NORMAL the students considered this. What the blazes went on in that school that they considered what had happened during lunch normal?!

Setsuna sighed, the weirdness of the school would have to wait. The biggest thing the Sanjiyan Unkara and Sailor Scouts would need for the upcoming meeting was information, but Setsuna's greatest tool of information, the Time Gates, were useless; or were they? True, the Time Gates couldn't see the future of _this_ timeline but they allowed her a clear view of a timeline that now couldn't happen. What if she looked at a timeline where Pai, Ranma, and the Scouts never met each other? She could look at the enemies of each separately and figure out what possible threat in the current timeline they could be.

Interestingly it had been an exchange student who had just returned from the States who had given her the idea. He had challenged they way she portrayed history. Seems that in America he had watched a BBC-PBS series called Connections hosted by a man named James Burke. In the series Burke showed that technological development was result of various factors coming together rather than the traditional 'great man' concept. Why not view all history in that manner? It would explain why she had not spotted the event that had caused the Time Gates to go nuts; there was no single event responsible but rather a series of different and unrelated events coming together in a different manner from the future she had originally seen.

Using the Time Gates like a DVD player Setsuna set about gathering information. There were some details in Ranma life that from her quick glance troubled her but right now she just needed to assess enemies and their importance. Within an hour Setsuna's notebook had information spanning from the present to when the Great Disaster caused by Snow Princes Kaguya would have happened. She then looked into the Silver Millennium's past to find out more about the first Sailor Pluto and Saturn and was stunned by what she saw. On a whim she checked one more thing and in that instant shattered everything she had believed in. 'Everything we have and would have done is based on a misconception.' she thought bitterly. Sailor Pluto was now ready for the meeting but it had come at a very high personal price.

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After telling her friends to met her at the Tendo Dojo Usagi had gone straight home to her room. Luna got up and stretched. "Luna what can you tell me about Sailors Saturn and Pluto?"

Luna developed a feeling of utter dread. "How do you know about Sailors Saturn and Pluto?"

"I met them today."

"You _met_ Sailor Pluto _and_ Sailor Saturn?!" asked Luna in near hysterics.

"Luna, what's wrong with you. I never have seen you like this."

The black cat started pacing the bed nervously. "Sailor Pluto is the guardian of the Time Gates. For her to leave her post something really major is happening." Luna's pacing got faster as she continued, "Sailor Saturn was the only Sailor Scout that people of the Silver Millennium were actually afraid of. Her formal titles were the Sensei of Silence and Sensei of Destruction; the common people simple called her the Sensei of Death. It was said that the first Sailor Saturn flaunted the power that her royal house wielded by having a tattoo put on her forehead implying she was equal to the first Moon Kingdom queen. This tradition continued until the last Sailor Saturn. Despite that little stunt she and her decedents were insanely loyal to the Moon Queens."

"So why where people afraid of Sailor Saturn?"

Luna then stopped pacing and looked Usagi in the eye. "Mainly because like Sailors Uranus and Neptune the entire family line was into 'acceptable losses'. Only in the case of Saturn instead of a few people getting killed you could have hundreds or even thousands dying. The last one was either moody or cold; she cared nothing for people only her duty to her queen. Your mother told her to 'use _any_ means to stop Queen Beryl' while she cast the spell that would cause you all to be reincarnated in the future as well as imprison Queen Beryl. You only have to look at the solar system today to see the result of that order. In the Silver Millennium EVERY planet was able to support human life and now only the Earth can."

Usagi took in what she had just heard "Well the girl I mean woman I met is certainly neither moody or cold so I don't think that is going to happen this time around." Suddenly a thought occurred to Usagi and she hurriedly drew the Chinese character Wu on a piece of paper, and showed it to Luna. "You said something about the all the Sailor Saturns except the last having a tattoo, it wouldn't have looked like this would it?"

"It looked EXACTLY like that. How did you know?"

"Silly cat the first Sailor Saturn wasn't flaunting her power; she was Wu."

"Usagi what is a Wu?"

"I'll explain on the way to the Tendo Dojo."

"Where?"

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Setsuna found that the oni around the Tendo Dojo didn't bother her. 'Why should they? My mother likely had them as friends.' The other Sailor Scouts would be nervous with so many demons about and so she had gone here straight from the Time Gates to reassure them. For once she was glad Sailor Neptune and Uranus wouldn't wake up for at least another week. Their counterparts in the other timeline and sadly herself had been in a 'it's an enemy, attack' and 'the end justifies the means' mindset. In a way it had been a prime example of the old adage 'fight the dragon too long and you risk becoming the dragon.' The path leading to Crystal Tokyo was no longer in _this_ world's future but those two wouldn't believe it and think Pluto had been possessed. 'Just another mess to clean up courtesy of Sailor Peabrain.' she thought bitterly holding her Time Staff so hard it hurt.

"Something wrong, my dear?" asked Ke Lun quietly.

"Plenty, Ke Lun, I foolishly believed that there was one past, one present and one future. So I sat by and simply waited for time go by waiting for the other Sailor Scouts to reincarnate when I could have made the world a better place. In a way I'm responsible for every historical horror because I had the power to do something and because of my own stupidity I did nothing." Setsuna's eyes narrowed "But no longer. I am no longer a prisoner of my ego, of misconceptions of my power. The days of Sailor Pluto the mysterious manipulator to whom people are nothing but pawns in some sick chess game are over. Setsuna the Time Guardian is going to take an active hand in shaping the future."

"Sailor Pluto?"

Turning Setsuna saw Hotaru, Ranko, Pai, Akane, and Nabiki enter the back yard.

"Sounds too stuffy, as I said before call me Setsuna." Setsuna said smiling broadly.

"Sounds good. Once the rest of the Sailor Scouts get here we can begin." said Ranko cheerfully.

Meanwhile on a house across the street the Sailor Scouts had gathered and were having a somewhat heated discussion.

"Sailor Moon, this can't be the right place." fumed Luna "There are oni all over the place."

"I agree with Luna, you must have taken a wrong turn, Usagi." said Jupiter.

"According to the Mercury computer the magical energies there are the same I detected before. In addition the computer is detecting energies it identifies as Sailor Pluto's in the back yard."

"What about Sailor Saturn?" asked a worried Luna.

"I'm not sure. The readings I'm getting are like a jumble of the Silver Millennium magic and what I guess are the magics of these Sanjiyan Unkara. It's really hard to tell they are very similar."

"Why don't we hop to the house's roof for a better view." suggested Artimis.

"Great idea, why don't we also put up a neon sign saying 'look here five nice targets' to every oni down there while we're at it?" grumbled Luna.

"Ami, what does the computer say about the oni down there?" asked Venus.

"That is the really weird part, Minako. They are reading as oni all right but the computer keeps say that they are _non-hostile_ oni."

"Has the computer blown its chips?" came Mars' heated response.

"Don't get angry at me, Rei. I'm just telling you what the computer is telling me. I do agree that it seems to be spouting nonsense but that is what we have to work with. It just like the readings from Pai I got. Nothing makes sense. I am getting 300 years old with both human and demons readings, and top it off with magic very similar to that of the Silver Millennium."

"Let's take a closer look." said Usagi, "Because one way or the other we are going to have to deal with this." she finished as she jumped to the roof of the Tendo's house.

Unfortunately Usagi misjudged the distance and came down off balance which resulted in Luna taking flying lessons. It has been said that it isn't flying that is the problem it is the landing and Luna's landing spot had to the worst one around. Right on top of Ranko's head.

Ranko had been preoccupied with trying to study Setsuna's magical aura and so didn't know exactly what had landed on her head. "Now what?" as she picked up whatever had landed on her head up to better see what it was. For a moment Ranko just stared at the horror she had in her hand. Then Luna tried to pretend to be a normal cat by saying "Mrow?" at which point everything hit the fan.

"AAAAAGGGHHH!" said Ranko who threw poor Luna back up in the air and jumped back about 10 feet. Unfortunately Luna came back down to land on Ranko's head again. "GET IT OFF! AAAAGGGHHH! C-C-CAT!" she screamed as Luna held on for dear life while Ranko ran all over the place like a maniac.

The screaming woke Genma out of his staff induced slumber and he groggily went out to the back yard to find out what was going on. The sight of his daughter Ranko running around with a black cat on her head woke him up faster than a cup of strong coffee. Even Genma had to admit that the Sanjiyan Unkara Ranko's ability to master Ki and Chakra outstripped Ranma's by many times. The idea of Ranko going into the Neko-ken caused Genma to leap up to safety. Genma then realized that he was on top of one of the Flying Jaws Akane had summoned. Genma figured that he was safer on the back of a demon then down on the ground. By the time Genma came to this conclusion a human voice going "Mrow." could be heard. Looking down Genma saw Ranko on all fours cleaning herself while a terrified black cat ran off to hide behind Sailor Moon.

"What just happened?" asked a stunned Sailor Moon.

"What wrong with Pai's sister?" yelled Pai.

Ke Lun frowned in stunned amazement, "The Neko-ken? Some total baka trained an Honored One in the Neko-ken?"

"What's the Neko-ken?" asked Akane.

"It's a martial artist training method that was supposed to make the trainee incredibly strong and fast." Ke Lun paused, "The problem is that it renders the trainee deathly afraid of cats to the point they think they are one to escape the fear. From what I know the method consisted of digging a pit, filling it with starving cats, tying up the trainee in fish and continuing to throw them into the pit until they learn the technique."

"That's insane." said Akane.

"What I like to know is who was stupid enough to train someone in it," said Ke Lun angrily.

"Pai's father stupid enough." Pai then looked up at Genma, "Pai's father have good explanation for this?"

"It was promoted as an unbeatable fighting technique. It was only on the last page that it said only a totally idiot would train anyone in it." said Genma remembering that anything Pai heard Parvati also heard.

"Let Pai guess, father not read all of technique before using. Correct?"

"Bingo."

"What kind of idiot are you?" asked an angry Sailor Jupiter from the top of the roof.

"Pai got better question. What kind of total baka writes down a totally dangerous technique down in detail in the first place and then provides a warning only on last page?"

"That is beside the point. The very method should have indicated it was insane!" yelled Sailor Jupiter.

"What about technique where one shoves their hands in a fire? Or one where subject is tied up and boulders thrown at them? Kachu Tenshin Amaguriken and Bakusai Tenketsu sound just as insane but _they_ work. Pai new to martial arts but from what Pai understand nearly all martial artists only commit in detail to writing the techniques that work. Father may have been stupid for not reading technique through but the real blame lies with total baka who commit it to paper in first place." Pai frowned "Neko-Ken writer lucky Pai martial artist now otherwise Pai wound introduce Cha-Lieh-Chong and Kuan-Yaa to Neko-Ken writer by shoving them down Neko-Ken writer's throat."

Setsuna shuddered as she remembered that Cha-Lieh-Chong was what Sailor Saturn used to blast the demon they had fought earlier today to bits. Given that she figured that Kuan-Yaa wasn't pleasant either.

"Hey forget about the baka who wrote the thing." said Akane as she pointed to Ranko "What do we do about Ranko?"

"She'll likely snap out of it in a few hours. Ranma did." said Genma.

"Perhaps now with me being Wu my healing powers might help." said Hotaru as she put her henshin stick above her head "Saturn Eternal Power! Make Up!" Hotaru then knelt down "Come here Ranko, that's a nice kitty."

'Safe friend' thought Neko-Ranko and leapt onto Hotaru and licked her face.

Hotaru started healing Ranko and was stunned went Ranko collapsed but her face was still being licked by something.

"Oh that most definitely was not fun." said Ranko clutching her head. "What in the spirit world is that?"

"Pai think is like Ki dragon Ranko make fighting Mistress 9."

Ranko looked carefully at the Ki being before her, "You're the fear and power of the Neko-ken aren't you?"

"Mrow." said the form solidifying into a bluish panther.

'Must be as normally that would have been enough to send me running for the hills.' thought Ranma.

'There is a lot of our Ki in that thing.'

'I take it that is not a good thing.'

'Definitely. We need that Ki.' thought Ranko "Come on Neko-Ken, time to go home."

"Mrow." said the form as it leapt into Ranko.

"Ok the Neko-ken is back where it belongs, Ranma and I are back to sanity, and everyone is here. I say its time to get started."

"And what is going to keep you from going nuts again?" asked Luna from behind Usagi's legs.

Ranko looked at Luna and stiffened. She then closed her eyes and relaxed. "Seems that if I don't see you Neko-Ken-sama is content to stay home." Ranko smiled "Stay out of sight and we'll be fine."

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After everyone settled down in the dojo with the exception of Luna and Artimis who had to settle for being in earshot outside the dojo Setsuna pulled out her notebook.

"I have a lot of information that I was able to dig up using the Time Gates about the Silver Millennium and what foes we may face in the future so try to keep the questions to a minimum."

"I have one question for you Sailor Pluto. When are you going to tell them who really laid waste to the solar system?" asked a mocking voice.

Everyone turned to see a tall lady dressed in black with a ball that looked like a cat's head in her hands. "You are going to tell them how rather than lose to Queen Beryl Queen Serenity used the Ginzuishou so her daughter and guards can be reincarnated with all their powers intact millennia later even though she knew it would wipe out life on not only the moon but all the planets except Earth?"

"Who are you?" asked Hotaru.

"Black Lady." pointing to Usagi as she continued, "I'm Sailor Meatball's daughter from the future and I must tell you she's a real piece of work just like her mother Queen Serenity."

"Why you..." said Mars as she got up to punch Black Lady's lights out.

Setsuna slammed the Time Staff on the dojo floor "Stand down, Hinto Rei."

Sailor Mars was stunned that Sailor Pluto had used her real name in the presence of an enemy and just stood in open mouthed disbelief.

"Mind continuing, Black Lady." Setsuna then swung the staff so that it was pointing at Sailor Mars who got the hint and sat back down, "I already know from my counterpart that your future is major mess, but I need to know just how much a mess it is."

'That's strange Sailor Pluto wants to hear our side of the story? Must be a trick. Well I'll humor her for the time being.' thought Black Lady.

"Mother's brilliant idea for dealing with evil was to use the Ginzuishou to cleanse everybody. But there were those who didn't want their mind manipulated by an idealistic airhead and so fought her." Black Lady's gaze shifted to Usagi "Neo-Queen Simpleton's next brilliant idea was to exile the rebels preventing them or their descendants from ever come back to Earth."

Setsuna's hand started squeezing the Time Staff again, "And the Black Moon family are some of these decedents."

"Yes. Mother you go on about you and the Sailor Scouts being the defenders of Love and Justice but your actions say otherwise." Black Lady's expression darkened. "What is loving and just about punishing the descendent of a criminal for crime they never did? What is loving and just about exiling that person and their descendants to a barren hunk of rock named Nemesis never to return to Earth? Worse yet you and father were so busy playing god that they had no time for your own daughter. You wondered why Prince Demando fights you? You wonder why I call myself Black Lady and now fight you with the help of Luna-P here? Are you so wrapped up in your little power trip as not to see the truth, MOTHER?" Black Lady asked with a cruel smile.

"You evil little..." snarled Jupiter as she started to get up only to face the Time Staff pointed in her direction.

"How can I be evil?" smirked Black Lady, "Neo-Queen Serenity cleansed everyone of evil. If I am evil than mother is either a hypocrite or the process doesn't really work. So which it is MOTHER?" Black Lady asked with her face barely a foot from Sailor Moon's.

"Don't listen to her Sailor erk." said a man in a tuxedo who now had a face full of Luna-P and then promptly fell down.

"Oh shut up, father. I am tired of you giving your idiotic speeches, throwing roses all over the place, and not actually fighting. At least that Blue Thunder buffoon I've heard about tries to fight which is more than you do. About the only thing I can say about both of you is you're less pathetic here in the past than you are in my own time. You know you and mother should get code names better suited to your mentalities. How about Tuxedo Moron and Sailor Moonie?"

Setsuna slammed down the Time Staff, "That is quite enough." Setsuna moved to where she was a foot from Black Lady "Your future IS a complete screw up but you don't know why do you?"

Black Lady backed up stunned by Sailor Pluto taking HER side.

"The answer is simple Black Lady; this is _not_ the solar system after the Silver Millennium. Queen Serenity's spell went haywire and sent the Scouts souls to be reincarnated in THIS world. The other planets of this solar system are dead not because of Queen Serenity or Sailor Saturn but because they were dead from the start. To prevent myself from going crazy I went into a kind of suspended animation to be awoken five years before your awakening; it wasn't until on a whim I checked the past of this solar system and discovered that there has NEVER been a Silver Millennium here."

"WHAT?!" yelled all the Scouts several of them jumping up.

"SIT DOWN." scowled Setsuna as she slammed the Time Staff down again, "My counterpart of Black Lady's future may have gotten into her head she couldn't leave the Time Gates and therefore had to manipulate things from behind the scenes, but I have no such misgivings."

"The reason her future is such a mess is because we didn't know the truth of our origins. If you don't know where you really have been then you cannot know where you are going. Simply put this is NOT our native universe."

"Pai get it. Just like the Sanjiyan Holy land is not really in the Kunlun mountain range of this Earth the Silver Millennium is not of this reality either." said Pai cheerfully.

Setsuna nodded sadly "Exactly. Crystal Tokyo was built on misconceptions and therefore was doomed from the start."

Black Lady just stared at Sailor Pluto. This wasn't going at all like Wiseman had said it would. Sailor Pluto was arguing the Black Moon Family's case rather than lashing out at her.

"Of course that we didn't know that the founders of the Silver Millennium were either Sanjiyan Unkara or Wu just aggravated the problem." said Sailor Pluto sadly.

"Luna told me about a tattoo the first Sailor Saturn had which she confirmed was the mark of Wu." said Usagi.

"It gets worse," Setsuna said looking at the ground, "Contrary to what people believe there was no Sailor Saturn line, but only one Sailor Saturn. She was my mother's Wu.."

"One of the Sailor Senshi was really a Sanjiyan Unkara?"

"My mother," admitted Sailor Pluto, "Sailor Saturn didn't want to give up being a Wu and so come up with a way to duplicate the effect by having her life-force connected to every human on her homeworld. Problem is the mages of the other worlds found out about it and duplicated it without telling either me, Saturn, or the Queen."

"So why was that a problem?"

"To reincarnate you would have to die first," said Setsuna sadly, "and the spells would try to bring you back as long as there was human life on your home worlds."

"You mean in trying to send the Sailor Senshi's souls forward in time…" stated Ami leaving the sentence unfinished as the full horror of the results of those two spells interacting became clear.

"Queen Serenity inadvertently killed all the people on every planet with a Sensei. That would have been 300 billion give or take a few million," said Setsuna as she picked up one of the castes and closed her eyes.

"Setsuna, what are you doing with that?" asked Ranko nervously.

"It's from the Pool of Drowned Female Sanjiyan Unkara." Setsuna stated.

"How do you know that?" asked Ke Lun.

"I can't see into Nerima's present or future but I can see into the past here and elsewhere. It wasn't to hard to figure out that the harpy-bird that went to Jusenkyo and got water from Pool of Drowned Female Sanjiyan Unkara came from here."

"So, Sailor Pluto, what _are_ you going to do with that?" sneered Black Lady.

"Reclaim my heritage." and before anyone could move Setsuna had poured the contents of the caste over her head. Setsuna eyes shot open as it felt as if somebody had just ripped off all her skin, rolled her in salt, and finally shoved a white hot branding iron into her forehead. The scream that escaped from her lips would have put the wails of the most tortured soul in hell to shame. She fell to a kneeling position as the nails on her hands became claws and two bat like wings came out of her back.

"What's happening?" yelled Sailor Moon who ran up to hold Sailor Pluto.

"You baka. Parvati said you shouldn't mix magics unless you know what you are doing." scowled Ranko. "Great just freaking great your Ki and Chakra are a mess." said Ranko as she narrowed her eyes "I can't even tell if you are Sanjiyan Unkara or something else right now."

"I take it is not supposed to hurt?" came Setsuna's weak question as her wings enfolded themselves around her and Sailor Moon.

"No, it is not supposed to hurt. Not even at his worse would my father do something this baka. What the blazes where you thinking?" exclaimed Ranko as she grabbed Setsuna by the shoulders.

"Hotaru was still able to be a Sailor Scout," came the stronger reply.

"She was made Wu in her untransformed state, you baka." Ranka finally got Setsuna to raise her face. "Kuso." Ranko muttered.

Black Lady stepped back frightened. Sailor Pluto now looked like a succubus complete with bat like wings and fangs. Deciding she seen enough for one day Black Lady disappeared.

"The pain is gone now." touching her wings as she stood "thanks for the cloak." she smiled.

"That not a cloak, that is you." frowned Ranko as she tried to make heads and tails of the Ki and Chakra she was seeing. "Pai, do you have any idea what she turned into?"

"Pai have vague memories of being told of Sanjiyan Unkara who fit appearance of Pluto. Never told name but told it means Adversary."

Setsuna groaned, "Just great. In Hebrew Adversary is Satan."

"No, Ranma she is not named for a type of cloth," said Ranko shaking her head, "That is satin not Satan."

"Adversary ruler of place where bad souls go," said Pai, "She rule from city called Dis."

"You mean the Christian devil is a Sanjiyan Unkara?!" asked Rei.

"Pai not know. Only told avoid her because she crazy. Try to teach mortal our powers and said mortals cause their cities of Sodom and Gomorra to blow up."

Rei promptly paled, "According to the Bible Sodom and Gomorra were destroyed for their evil."

Pai shook her head, "Cities die because they dumb not evil."

"What in the name of Kami-sama?" asked Mercutry was she went over her read out.

"Mercury what is it?" asked Sailor Moon.

"The Mercury computer is now identifying her as Pluto's twin sister," said Mercury as she paled, "Satan."

Setsuna looked at Mercury and then at the wings she now had and promptly passed out.

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	10. Chap 10 The Strongest Weapon

Ranma 1/2 is the creation of Rumiko Takahashi, 3x3 eyes (Sazan Eyes) is the creation of Yuzo Takada, Sailor Moon is the creation of Naoko Takeuchi. All are used without permission. This fan-fiction isn't intended for commercial use but is rather a tribute to Ranma 1/2, 3X3 Eyes, and Sailor Moon.

Chapter 10 The Strongest Weapon

Setsuna felt herself being shaken awake "Come on, Setsuna, wake up." said Ranko's voice.

"I can heal her." said Sailor Moon.

"No don't." hissed Ranko "We have no idea on how your powers will work on her like this. This is exactly why I was so concerned when Hotaru used her power to transform into a Magical Girl after she became Wu. Parvati said mixing magic without knowing what you are doing was a bad idea and this proves it."

Setsuna opened her eyes and turned to stand up noticing the looks of fear in her fellow Scouts, "Come on despite what I look like I'm the same person."

"The Mercury computer now identifies you as Sailor Pluto's long lost twin sister, Satan," said Mercury calmly.

"Twin sister? I don't--wait a minute. I vaguely remember someone I often played with when I was younger who looked like this."

"The Mercury computer says shortly after becoming the new Sailor Pluto your sister was lost when you were doing something with the Time Gates. You were so torn up that the then Queen healed you."

"Made me forget she even existed you mean," said Setsuna angrily.

"You can look for your sister later. Pai, make some hot water and let's continue this." snapped Ranko.

"Continue what?" asked Venus.

"Setsuna said she had some information about the possible foes we may face. I for one would like to have some idea of what we are going to face rather than stumbling around like you girls have obviously done in the past." Ranko commented.

"What do you mean 'stumbling around'? We have done fine up to now." scowled Mars.

"You were lucky. I can tell that the only one of you that has any reasonable skill in Martial Arts fighting is Sailor Jupiter." Ranko turned to Jupiter, "You just need some more training to realize the potential I saw." Ranko frowned looking at the other Senshi, "As for the rest of you. From what I saw it is only by an insane amount luck you haven't gotten killed."

"Actually they _did_ get killed in the final fight with Queen Beryl." said Setsuna glumly as Pai poured the warm water she had gotten over her.

"Say WHAT?!" stammered Ranko who then started studying the Senshi more closely.

"After Sailor Moon finally defeated Queen Beryl she wished for a normal life. No magical power, no life draining demons, no destiny. The Ginzuishou granted her wish by restoring her friends to life and wiping their memories." Setsuna looked down at the ground, "until now they didn't know that the way they helped Sailor Moon defeat Beryl was as spirits because they had been previously killed."

"That's impossible." stammered Mars.

"No I'm sorry to say that is pretty much the way it happened." said Luna from her place outside the Dojo. The Senshi just looked at Sailor Moon who looked at the ground. "I didn't know." she whispered.

Ranko frowned, "Well hate to burst this to you but with the exception of Sailor Moon your Ki is 'off'. Almost like Ranma and I are looking through some sort of filter. I think what ever brought you back didn't quite get it right but got very close. But let's table that for later as well. How does what's coming compare to this 'Queen Beryl'?"

"Far more powerful and dangerous." admitted Setsuna.

"Wonderful, ok Setsuna tell us just what we are fighting?"

Setsuna sat down and sighed, "First the good news. Pai/Parvati doesn't have that many enemies that show up in the next year or so. In fact the only major enemies I _could_ find that could be a problem won't appear until four years in the future. By contrast while Ranma if he had fallen into Pool of Drowned Girl would have had a lot of foes show up they are for the most part martial artist challenges in strange and exotic schools. So despite being challenging for Ranma most of them are not a major threat to the Senshi."

Pulling out her notebook, Setsuna continued "That said there are five foes of Ranma who in my opinion could be major problems even for the Senshi.

The least of these is called Pantyhose Taro who could show up in about six months. The main threat he poses is that not only is he a skilled martial artist but he has a cold water form which he believes is the result of him being baptized in the Pool of Drowned Yeti-riding-a-Bull-holding-a-Crane-and-Eel. In reality he was baptized in a pool made from four different pools but the result is the same. Fighting an over ten foot tall Minotaur like being with a long tail who can fly and is a skilled martial artist is not high on my list of things to do. Fortunately his main goal is to defeat the baka who baptized him so he can get his name changed.

Next comes Ha Bu of the Jakou or Musk Dynasty who could show up eight months from now. The Jakou make themselves strong by taking animals and throwing them into the Pool of Drowned Girl, locking them in that form with a magic item known as the Chiisuiton and marrying them."

"That's disgusting." exclaimed Akane looking a little ill.

"Perhaps, but it does make them unusually strong. Now in the case of Ha Bu the process goes all wrong; he gets locked in female form and goes looking for the long lost Kaisui-fu to unlock him. Ranma and several others get locked and everybody goes looking for this pot. Ha Bu states that he locked Ranma because his female form looks like the monkey that locked him. I checked and the monkey does _not_ look like Ranko so why Ha Bu really locks Ranma I have no idea. At the end of the whole thing everybody get unlocked and Ha Bu is indebted to Ranma. Handled better in this timeline Ha Bu will likely start out as a staunch ally so he not that much of a threat."

Setsuna paused considering her notes and continued, "The third, Rouge worries me. While in the other timeline she didn't show up for over 10 months she did fall into in the Pool of Drowned Ashura. For those who don't know Ashura is a 6-armed, 3-headed Hindu Goddess. Since the Sanjiyan Unkara effectively _were_ the Hindu pantheon this means we have another Sanjiyan Unkara out there. Only this one has no idea what she really is and so doesn't have access to the spirit spells Parvati and Ranko do."

"This not good. Pai remember mother talking about auntie Ashura who disappeared around the time of wise mortal known as King Solomon. She was unusually powerful even by Sanjiyan Unkara standards. If Rouge figure out how to handle even faction of that power that would make her very dangerous."

"Not as dangerous as the fourth on my list, Sa Fulang, the self proclaimed god of Phoenix Mountain. In terms of raw power and the ability to use it he is most likely the most dangerous of the five. However pushed to the limits even without abilities of a Sanjiyan Unkara, Ranma was able to kill him to save someone he loved deeply. The thing is Sa Fulang reformed into an egg and would be reborn so like a Wu he's unkillable. However his regeneration requires that he grow up all over again. Given that the people of Phoenix Mountain practically worship the Sanjiyan Unkara I don't think Sa Fulang will be a problem in this timeline."

"Even as a normal human Ranma killed Sa Fulang?" asked a stunned Ke Lun.

"Yes but he is not the most dangerous of Ranma's foe. That distinction belongs to the founder and Grandmaster of the Ganso Musabetsu Kakuto Ryu himself, Happosai."

Genma rushed over and put his hand over Setsuna's mouth, "Shhhh he might hear you."

Pulling Genma's hand from her mouth and smiling Setsuna went on, "Don't worry he's still in the cave you and Soun put him years ago and at best won't be out of it for nearly two more months. That said Genma is right to be afraid of him. He is the Grandmaster of a martial arts school that can kill something considered a kami and the only way Ranma could beat him in the other timeline was to trick him. He glomps women and steals their underwear not just because he is a little pervert but because he can drain the Ki from them and their clothes."

Ranko nodded in understanding "In other words the longer a woman fights him the stronger the freak gets."

Setsuna nodded her mouth a thin line, "Not only that but he is the one who gave Pantyhose Taro his form and name. And yet no matter how he tried Pantyhose Taro never got him to formally change his name. In addition to his martial artist skills he has various magical items such as the Gouriki soba which increase one's strength to a level rivaling Hercules."

"Oooo. Pai impressed. Great uncle Hercules was said to be physically strongest person in both Sanjiyan and this world history." smiled Pai as the others looked on in stunned amazement.

Setsuna smirked "Not that _I_ would want use the Gouriki soba. I would look horrible with a beard. Annoying side effect that. Anyways Happosai's tricky and sometimes petty. That makes him very dangerous."

"He founder of School Pai learning; he make perfect teacher for Pai." Pai said clapping her hands.

Ranko put her head in her arms and shook it from side to side. "Now there is a scary thought. Total pervert Happosai teaching Pai the over enthusiastic Wu Ganso Musabetsu Kakuto Ryu. If we get desperate we could always keep the little freak busy by giving him Pai as a pupil; then next we could watch Parvati try and barbeque the pervert." she said while the rest of the group looked at Pai as if she had lost her mind.

"Well we have nearly two months before the freakshow hits town so we have some time to plan for him. However there are foes of the Sailor Senshi running around in the here and now. What of them?" asked Nabiki in an effort to get everybody off Pai's fascination with Happosai.

"Uh yes." said Setsuna as she nervously looked over at the happy Pai "Well there are three main enemies."

"Hold it. Pai not understand. Pai only see evidence of two different summoners not three in the Minato ward."

"That is because the group from the future Black Lady belongs to does not drain life energy. Instead they imbue people with energy from the Jakokusuishou to create problems that will draw out the Sailor Scouts so they can attack them. The group the Sailor Scouts first faced after Queen Beryl in the history leading to the Black Moon Family were servants of a tree known as Makaiju. They are trying to keep it alive by feeding the Makaiju the life energy they are stealing. Ironically that is actually helping to kill the tree as it lives off of love, an emotion its servants have no concept of. Eventually the Sailor Scouts will show them this and they will leave peacefully.

After that there was to be about a six to seven month lull after which Pharaoh 90 via his servants the Witches 5 strove to have Mistress 9 possess Hotaru and bring the Silence to this world. To help in this crisis two more Sailor Scouts Uranus and Neptune were awakened and I took somewhat an active role. In addition I had set up events so a possessor of something called the Millennium Puzzle would weaken Pharaoh 90 perhaps even destroy him if we could not find three items of incredible power - a mirror, a sword, and the Garnet Rod. When put together they form an even more powerful item, the Holy Grail.

In that other reality things got totally out of hand because my future self was being a closed mouthed bitch and we let the two Outers become as bad as those we fought and I am afraid Uranus and Neptune are going to have much the same Machiavellian mindset in _this_ timeline. We knew that these items were in pure heart crystals and the daimons of our foes were looking for them.

In the end another enemy called Snow Princess Kaguya showed up causing the foretold Great Disaster by turning the planet into an ice cube. Crippled by the ShadowRealm Pharaoh 90 lost interest in this world and was defeated. Sailor Moon declared herself Queen and then the events that resulted in the banishment to Nemesis happened. About 1,000 years later the Black Moon Family came back to this present to prevent their future from happening."

"Hold it. If Black Lady came from a different future shouldn't she vanished when history was changed?" asked Akane.

"Originally I would have thought so too as I also thought of time as a line from the past to the future. It obvious that that line of thinking was wrong as since in her timeline there was no enemy from the future; history changed the moment the Black Moon family showed up. In reality it turns out that time is like a tree with each choice a branch."

"I'm not sure I understand." said Ranko.

"I think I do and if I'm right it explains a lot." said Nabiki. "Remember how you said you and Genma traveled for 10 years. I imagine there were a lot of places where you came to a road that branched to the left and right. Regardless of which path you took the other still existed. History is the same way. All Black Lady has done is come back down the left path and is now going up the right."

Genma eyes opened in realization, "In other words she backtracked but in time rather than an actual path."

"You know there are times when you actually surprise me, fathe,r by saying something that is totally brilliant." said Ranko.

"That is why you can't change history." Setsuna commented. "Scientists even formed a theory of it in 1964 called the Many Worlds Solution to Bell's Theorem."

Ranko thought for a moment. "We have a problem. The attacks are focused in Juubangia district. Despite our resources we are going to have a difficult time fighting foes there from here."

Setsuna nodded her head "True but I think Black Lady's appearance here shows that the attacks are not going to be limited to Juubangia district or even the Minato ward anymore. They along with the Makaiju will be interested in the Ningen No Zou. While Pharaoh 90 may have lost Mistress 9 as the means to bring the Silence to this world he has a backup group that uses something called the Seal of Oreichalkos but they need improvements in hologram technology before they can really get started. Thankfully this means that he will be less interested in the Ningen No Zou as an alternative method."

"So when Sham Pu comes back with it we are likely to be the target for two of these three groups." Ranko looked at the castes of water. "We cannot leave these here anymore. The last thing we need is any of these enemies gaining the ability to transform into a Sanjiyan Unkara especially as we will also soon have the Ningen No Zou here as well."

Setsuna thought for a moment. "If the Sanjiyan Holy Land is actually in a different dimension then it could be in reality as large as the Earth. I bet the access point in the Kunlun mountains was to the capital. If I could make an access port to it here in Japan that would be far enough away to prevent the Wu that's running around to get to it from the Kunlun mountain entrance."

"Why not simple store it at the Time Gates?" came Luna's voice from the other side of the dojo wall.

"Because from what I have seen I know there are versions of me that I won't want anywhere near this water. Beside if the other Wu intended to recreate the Sanjiyan Unkara he could have used the pool long ago." Setsuna then stiffened "Kuso. The Pool."

"Don't worry we can use some hot water and have Parvati send some friends to protect the pool from the Black Moon Family and anybody else who has some funny ideas."

Setsuna nodded "Not the best solution but given the situation right now its the best we have." Setsuna got up "Well its getting late I say we all go home and get some sleep. I hope that the weapons I have given you helps."

Genma looked at Setsuna puzzled, "You didn't give them any weapons."

"Yes I did. The same weapons you gave your son, the same ones Queen Serenity gave these girls. The weapons of knowledge and information. In a real way knowledge and information are the strongest weapons anyone can be given." Setsuna said as she teleported away.

Genma sat there in the dojo contemplating Setsuna's words until the meeting broke up. 'Knowledge and information as weapons. Now there is an interesting idea.'

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[Author's note; the time frame Setsuna give for many of Ranma's foes showing up is based on the idea that the 38 volume series covers only a year of actual time. I simply took the volume the character in question appeared in and multiplied it by 12 and then divided by 38.

On the timeline Setsuna lays out for Crystal Tokyo you will notice that it does **not** follow the sequence the series does. That is because events in the Sailor Moon S movie which happens somewhere between episodes 111-118 of the Sailor Moon S series. Everything points to the events in that movie being the 'big freeze' that lead to the Crystal Tokyo the scouts saw early on in the S series season.

This means that in the _original_ timeline things went Queen Beryl, Doom Tree, 6 month lull, Pharaoh 90/Snow Princess Kaguya, exile, Crystal Tokyo. This means **everything** that happened after the Sailor Moon S season was the result of the Black Moon Family going back in time and changing things. I should mention that in Japanese mythology Amaterasu gave her mortal son Jummi a sword, mirror, and jewel which became the Sacred Regalia of the Emperor. These are very similar to the three items the Outer Sailor Scouts were looking for.


	11. Chap 11 Being Sanjiyan Unkara

Ranma 1/2 is the creation of Rumiko Takahashi, 3x3 eyes (Sazan Eyes) is the creation of Yuzo Takada, Sailor Moon is the creation of Naoko Takeuchi. All are used without permission. This fan-fiction isn't intended for commercial use but is rather a tribute to Ranma 1/2, 3X3 Eyes, and Sailor Moon.

Chapter 11 Being Sanjiyan Unkara

Ke Lun sat back in the Tendo Dojo going over the events of five days past. Immortality, eternal youth, and powers that made them regarded as gods by humans and yet the Sanjiyan Unkara were not gods. They were not perfect and they made mistakes, but the power they wielded made those mistakes far reaching. The Moon Kingdom saw 300 billion die due to such a mistake and all it had taken to bring Pai's world to an end was one insane Sanjiyan Unkara.

Looking out in the dim light Ke Lun saw Ranko and Pai doing complex katas. Ke Lun's eyes narrowed as she noticed that Ranko's hands were making summoning gestures. Over the centuries several wizards and martial artists had tried to combine martial arts and magic as the result would be an unheard level of power. However until now all attempts had been failures, mainly because there had been no martial artist school whose philosophy could easily integrate magic into it.

Ke Lun had known that Happosai's school of martial arts had the potential of being powerful but until Setsuna had related events from what could have been the future she had no idea on just _how_ powerful. According to Setsuna on its own in the hands of a student Happosai's school of martial arts would have been powerful enough to kill Sa Fulang. And now Ranko was well on the way to creating a new branch which she called the Sanjiyan Unkara Ganso Musabetsu Kakuto Ryu. Complicating matters was that Parvati seemed to be trying to recreate the Sanjiyan Holy Land here at the Tendo Dojo. Even Nerima had to have a limit on weirdness and soon there were going to have a lot of annoying visitors.

After the warm up Ranko began training Pai. What followed was a series of fast blows, blocks, counterblows, jumps, and sweeps. While from her body language it was clear Pai was a beginner she already had Ki enhanced reflexes surpassing that of many Nujiezu warriors. What puzzled and somewhat alarmed Ke Lun was she could see no evidence that either of them had trained in any of the Nujiezu techniques Sham Pu knew.

"I see that we're not the only ones up at four in the morning." came a voice from the house.

"Hello, Akane, Hotaru," replied Ranko without so much as pausing in the sparring match. "I'm surprised. Akane I expected you but I didn't expect Hotaru as well."

"Any particular reason?" asked Hotaru.

"It has to do with the great stamina of being Sanjiyan Unkara doesn't it?" asked Akane.

"That was the first thing Ranma noticed as well. I moved faster and had greater stamina than he did. Parvati noticed the same difference between her and Pai. Ranma believes that Sanjiyan Unkara access their Ki and Chakra more easily than humans do." Ranko chuckled, "He is also determined to find a way to tap into his reserves that are normally used for spell casting. If there is anyone who could do it is my brother Ranma."

"I don't feel tired like I used to." stated Hotaru as she brushed her hair out of her face.

Ranko smiled, "Good, You and Pai train with each other without you transforming into Sailor Saturn. I want to train Akane."

"Pai understand. Sister Ranko want to see how well Hotaru is without magical girl powers?"

"In part but I also have a theory on the Sailor Sensei transformation. Come on Akane." said Ranko as she walked to the back porch.

"We're not going to have much room to train here."

Ranko chuckled as she sat down, "Actually we have plenty of room. Please sit."

Akane sat down puzzled, "I don't understand."

"Look at Pai and Hotaru spar and stare intently at them. Tell me what you see."

"What the... There's like a colored halo around each of them."

Ranko chuckled, "You're seeing their inner Ki and Chakra. Normally that technique would require someone around third or fourth Dan of Kalari or Shaolin Chuan Fa to do."

Akane's jaw dropped, "But, Ranko, I don't even know what either Kalari or Shaolin Chuan Fa are. How can I be on par with third of forth Dan in those styles?"

"There in lies the problem." said Ranko, "A Sanjiyan Unkara's ability to use their Ki and Chakra comes so naturally that it effectively bypasses years if not decades of training. Ranma has no ends of headaches in trying to duplicate what I can do with my Ki and Chakra." Ranko smiled slightly.

Akane looked down "So martial artist training in my Sanjiyan Unkara form is less effective than training in my human form."

"Yes. On his own Ranma on par with a second or third Dan. But my Sanjiyan Unkara form's ability to manage Ki and Chakra kicks that up to fifth or perhaps sixth Dan in many areas. But I don't have the skill that should go along with such large reserves of Ki and Chakra."

"Parvati doesn't know this does she?" asked Akane.

"She knows there is a boost but she doesn't realize that it can be that extreme." said Ranko folding her arms. "That is why I am pushing Pai in learning martial arts so hard." Ranko turned and smiled, "And why for the rest of this week you, Nabiki, and Kasumi are going to learn spirit magic."

"So that is why you and Ranma trade off weeks." nodded Akane in understanding. "To balance your two aspects: martial arts and magic."

"Of course we can't practice much of it in the middle of the night. So we are going to have to rework our sleep schedule."

"Does Ranma use the fact that rest carries over from one form to the next?" said a voice behind them.

"Hello, Nabiki." said Ranko. "and yes he does." Ranko frowned, "Setsuna indicated we have three foes out there each with its own agenda. We need to do some planning. I got the impression the Scouts have been reacting to these attacks rather than studying them and trying to be proactive." Ranko chuckled "That's not polite Ranma but sadly correct."

"What he'd say?" asked Akane.

"Not to mention with one exception their fighting skills are as about as effective as a one legged white belt in a 10th Dan butt kicking contest." quoted Ranko.

Nabiki sat down, "We are going to have problems with the Blue Thundering idiot."

"Now what has that poetry spouting buffoon gone off and done?" scowled Akane.

"He went off and got some spirit wards from a Shinto priest."

"Kuso." spat Ranko, "That is a concern."

Akane looked out over the yard with all the oni, "Can a skilled Shinto priest banish our oni?"

Ranko nodded her head, "Many Sanjiyan Unkara's attacks and defense spells are spirit based. The spirit wards of a really skilled Shinto priest could give us and our Wu problems by restricting or even cutting off access to our primary power source."

"That is not all a Shinto priest could do." said Nabiki who pulled what looked like a Shinto ward from her pocket. She tossed the ward to the ground where a Shou-Rin appeared and started running around.

Ranko's jaw dropped, "How in the world?"

Nabiki folded her arms "On a hunch I put the characters some of our spells on Shinto wards and imbued them with my power. The results as you can see were quite alarming."

"That is an understatement." said a shocked Akane images of Kuno summoning a Fei-oh dancing in her head. "That baka has no idea what he is playing with."

Ranko nodded "Fortunately a Shinto priest doesn't have the knowledge to call forth oni like we can as they are limited to spirits. But the Wu of a Sanjiyan Unkara..."

"Like Benares." said Akane in understanding.

"Speaking of Siva's Wu wonder what he is up to." frowned Ranko, "You would have thought that the evidence of Sanjiyan Unkara magic should have attracted his attention by now."

Nabiki fidgeted, "You're thinking like a martial artist or warrior, Ranko. Unlike either of those Benares has one advantage--time. That makes fighting against him more like a chess game. Move - counter move."

Ranko nodded. "That would explain why he's been so quiet that Parvati nearly forgot about him." Ranko then put her hand to her chin in thought, "Perhaps that was his original game plan. Let Pai become human, out live her, and then go about releasing Siva."

"Only he didn't know about Jusenkyo and the pool of Drowned Female Sanjiyan Unkara." continued Akane. "Pai certainly didn't otherwise she wouldn't have been looking all over the world for the Ningen No Zou."

Looking up at the rising sun Ranko got up, "Why don't we get some breakfast? I imagine Kasumi has gotten use to our new schedule. Besides it we get their early enough we might skip Kuno's Righteous Vengeance 101 course."

Akane grimaced "One can only hope."

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After everyone left for school Genma started rummaging though his backpack.

"What are you doing old friend?" asked Soun looking up from his paper finally.

"There were many techniques that I saw that I didn't understand and said they required knowledge of the Sanjiyan Unkara to learn properly." as his back was to Soun Genma couldn't see his old friend stiffen slightly at the mention of the name Sanjiyan Unkara. "Ah here is that training manual." Genma smiled as he pulled out a particularly battered book.

"What is that?" asked Ke Lun intrigued at the old training manual.

Genma looked at the badly faded title, "Techniques of the Sazan Ryu."

Ku Lun nearly dropped her staff at that. "Sazan Ryu?" she repeated in awe. "That is the rumored martial arts school of the Sanjiyan Unkara."

Genma tapped the book, "This is part of the reason we were in the part of China we were. This book said that these techniques could only be taught by a Sanjiyan Unkara and that they lived in the Kunlun mountains."

"I thought from what Ranko said you didn't know Chinese."

"I don't," admitted Genma, "but not only did I find this manual her in Japan but it's even written in Japanese. Why would a martial arts school of a people who live in China be here and in a different language?"

Ke Lun walked over to Genma "To the Hindus the Sanjiyan Unkara were revered as gods, perhaps the Kami of Japan were also Sanjiyan Unkara. Let's both go over this training manual."

Soun buried his face in his paper wondering when he was going to finally wake from this nightmare.

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By this time Akane, Ranko, Nabiki, and Pai had arrived at school.

"Well we avoided the idiots." said Ranko unsuccessfully pulling on a door "Problem is they don't open the school for another hour."

"RANMA WHERE ARE YOU?!" cried out a female voice. Everybody turned to see a somewhat haggard young red headed girl stumble on to the school grounds carrying a metal umbrella.

Pai walked up to the little girl "Pai and sister try to teach you about being Ran-Pao-Pao and you wander off; Pai and sister very cross at Ryoga."

"It's not Pao-chan's fault that can't find her way out of a room with one door, Pai." smirked Ranko.

Looking at the sound of the voice Ryoga approached the group, "That is just it. I _can_ find my way around but only in my cold water form. For the first time in my life I can get where I want to be without help!"

"So why you take so long to get here?"

Ryoga scowled, "Because this form doesn't have the strength to carry my umbrella!" at which point Ryoga changed into a four armed woman that stood between seven and eight feet tall with prominent fangs.

Now Ranko scowled "Oh joy. Ryoga is now in Ran-Pao-Pao form."

Ryoga looked down, got a nose bleed, and promptly passed out. The large woman then changed into a small girl again.

"Pai not understand. What happened?"

"Ryoga is very shy, sis. He sees a small amount of female flesh and he passes out. I guess with his ego he tried to find Ranma in his warm water form the first time around"

"Don't worry my divine beauty the Blue Thunder shall save you." exclaimed Kuno hitting Ryoga with his bokken.

Pai put her head in her hands, "It too early in the morning for this."

"The Blue Thunder will never sleep as long as the foul sorcerer Saotome weaves his magic."

Pai looked up angry, "That's it. Parvati and Pai both have enough of school idiot insulting brother." pulling back her leg Pai yelled "Flying numb nuts kick." and Kuno went airborne yelling in higher than normal voice causing all the early rising males in ear shot to cringe in sympathy.

"Uggh, what happened?" asked Ryoga.

"You changed, saw your own breasts, and passed out," said Ranko as Kuno started recovering from Pai's blow.

"Your guise of an innocent girl does not fool the Blue Thunder," said Kuno charging, "Have at you thing of evil!" he yelled as he hit Ryoga with his bokken.

"Blue Thunder? When I done with you you'll be the Black and Blue Drizzle." screamed Ryoga transforming into a Ran-Pao-Pao and started to pound Kuno.

"Pai didn't know that body part bended like that."

"Uh, Pai, it doesn't." said Akane sweetdropping.

"Oooh, that's going to hurt tomorrow." said Ranko.

"Remind me not to get this guy mad at me." said Nabiki.

In the end a little red headed girl was standing on top of the twisted form of Tatewaki Kuno would be samurai and now part time human pretzel flashing the 'V' sign and proclaiming "Victory."

"Great he's doing Lina Inverse impressions." said Akane.

"Who Lina Inverse?" asked Pai.

"I don't think I want to know." said Ranko her face in her hands "Akane do you know of anyone here who can handle human pretzels?"

"Yes," Akane replied, "That would be Doctor Tofu."

"Well let's take the Blue Bruise there and let the doctor take care of him."

A little while later as Ranko held Ryoga's hand as they went back to the entrance to the school. "Let go, Ranko. I am not a little girl."

"At least not since we got you hot water." Ranko smirked, "But you still need training and I for one don't want to wait until you get back from the bathroom by way of Outer Mongolia."

"Then put me in my cold water form. At least then I won't get lost." Ryoga fumed.

"You don't know how to manage the transformation between thing and your Ran-Pao-Pao form yet. Also I think give the True Blunder that the girls would take issue with you going to their bathroom. Unlike Ranma and I you have the same mind."

Turning to Akane Ranko asked, "Akane, what was with that doctor anyhow? He seemed fine until you called home and told him Kasumi was on the phone. He then went bonkers and turned Kuno into more a mess then before we got him there."

"Tofu always reacts that way when he talks to or sees my sister Kasumi. It was a way insure the Blue Thundering moron would be occupied for the day." Akane smiled sinisterly "And I much admit it was a nice way to get some overdue revenge."

"Remind me and Ranma never to get on your bad side." said Ranko.

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The rest of the school day went reasonably well. Ryoga made the mistake of saying he need to go to the bathroom and was splashed with some cold water to keep him from getting lost again. As a result Ryoga got to be in his Hong-Nyang form for most of the day and so was not exactly happy by its end.

"Look Ryoga" fumed Akane, "You got lost once before and you really need to train using that form properly as. Besides I overheard you say that in that form you don't get lost."

"So I wind up looking like a little girl." grumbled Ryoga.

"Well Pao-chan in that form you _are_ a little girl." chuckled Ranko.

"I am going to pound that idiot father of yours so hard his grandfather will feel it."

"Take a number on that one. Of course Pai pointed out that Genma couldn't have done as many stupid things as he did if he hadn't been helped by the stupidity of others."

"He still needs to be pounded into the ground." muttered Ryoga.

"Let's go to Ucchan's restaurant. We still have not heard her choice on Pai's solution on how to clean up the mess my father made of his or rather her life."

"Still think of Ukyo as a boy don't you?" asked Akane.

Ranko sighed "Ranma does. The best I think he can manage is thinking of her as a sister. I just hope she takes Pai's option as it would solve a lot of honor headaches."

While Ranko was working on cleaning up one mess another was winging its way to the Tendo Dojo on Takuhi's back.

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"Welcome to Uccan's" said Ukyo as she turned "Hello, Ranko?"

"Hello, Ucchan, we're here to have one of your great okonomiyaki," Ranko's smile faded a little, "and see about Pai's idea on cleaning up the mess my father made."

Ukyo nodded and went off to make the okonomiyaki while everyone else sat down. After a few minutes of silence Ukyo returned and sat down.

Akane looked at Ukyo "So are you going to agree with Pai's suggestion on dealing with this mess?"

"Pai hope so. Pai know that Ranma not take obvious solution and have both you and Ukyo as wives as it would be perverted." chirped Pai "Besides it be great Pai have another sister." Pai said clapping her hands.

"A _HUMAN_ sister, Wu." said Ranko coldly startling both Akane and Ukyo with the intensity of her voice.

Pai stopped clapping stunned while Parvati mentally smiled 'Very good sister. Our resources are stretched to teach the humans we've made Sanjiyan Unkara as it is. It's doubtful we could handle another one. Besides Pai needs to be reminded that you and she are not just sisters.'

Ranko turned to Ukyo, "You saw what happened with Hotaru. Well Ranma is a Wu as well. That means every crazy out there who wants immortality will come after him or Parvati as well." Ranko paused "Becoming Wu or Sanjiyan Unkara means you cannot have a truly normal life because you are immortal. You watch every human around you even your own children and grandchildren grow old and die." Ranko swept her hand "This world becomes one of walking shadows while the one of spirits and oni becomes solid. A Sanjiyan Unkara and its Wu are in this world but not really a part of it."

Ukyo sipped her drink, "That explains the human part and you explained several days ago why I could not be wife as Genma originally planned."

Ranko smirked "Genma plan? I doubt my father really planned anything in his life. Oh, he had goals but he largely stumbled his way to them. Besides I have two other reasons for doing it this way. First and foremost Ranma now knows that martial arts are not enough to provide what a family needs. The only example of raising a child he has is Genma, who he knows that while reasonably good as a Sensei was horrid as a parent. So, Ranma has to learn how to properly raise children before having any."

Ukyo nodded in agreement, "That is reason number one but what of reason number two?"

"Pai know that one. Ranko say at best Ranma think of you as sister. To make love to sister is perverted and brother not pervert. So that why Ranma want to adopt you rather than marry you." smiled Pai.

Ranko looked at Pai, "Well that's not quite the way I would've put it but that is the basic reason. Related to that is the fear that if Pops did this once he may have done it again. That means marrying _anyone_ now is dicey honorwise."

Ukyo frowned, "My concern is what your mother will think about all of this."

Ranko frowned, "Genma said so little about her I don't even know if she is alive anymore. Even if she is I need to know if she is skilled in martial arts. Getting her involved in our world would be dangerous if she cannot properly defend herself."

Ukyo nodded, "After what I saw yesterday I can understand."

Ranko broke into a smile "Enough with the heavy stuff let's enjoy this okonomiyaki before the dinner rush hits."

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When they all got to the dojo they saw Genma and Ke Lun going over a training manual.

"Hey, Pops, what are you and Ke Lun doing?" asked Ranko.

"Going over the Sazan Ryu. The martial arts style of the Sanjiyan Unkara." said Genma as he pointed out a detail of a technique to Ke Lun who nodded her head.

"Pai not know sister's people have martial arts style."

"So how can you read the manual, Oyaji? You don't know Chinese." said Ranko narrowing her eyes.

"That is just one of the many strange things about this manual Honored One; it is not in Chinese but rather Japanese." said Ke Lun as she looked over the manual pointing out a detail to Genma who started scratching his head.

"That would support Parvati's theory that the major Kami of Japan were actually Sanjiyan Unkara." stated Akane.

"There are also some interesting hints in this manual. Take this for example, 'This technique combines the power of Chin-Kuu with the spontaneity of Jeet Kune Do'." Genma looked up at Ranko. "Jeet Kune Do was the martial arts skill Bruce Lee developed."

"Hold it right there. Bruce Lee?" Nabiki smirked "Sure that you didn't get flim flamed?"

Genma chuckled, "I may have my faults but I know martial arts." gesturing at the manual, "The techniques in this manual are stated to very powerful." Genma frowned "The only problem was that every technique states you need a Sanjiyan Unkara to learn it and it mentions that access to their world can only be found at Kunlun."

"And you have had this manual for how long?" asked Ranko her face darkening.

"About four years."

Genma suddenly found himself being pulled to his feet and facing the three very angry eyes of his daughter. "So we weren't running around the Qinghai province simply to find the Jusenkyo training ground in the Bayankala Mountain Range but also in the hope you could find the Sanjiyan Unkara in the Kunlun Mountains. For one, Kunlun is a general reference to any doorway to the world of the Sanjiyan Unkara rather than a particular one; and second, I would like to know why you didn't bring this manual to light when I was training my Wu while we in China, FATHER."

To anyone who had known Genma in the past his response would have surprised them but if there was one thing Genma had discovered in dealing with Parvati was that she admired someone who stood up to her when they were in the right. He simply applied that same method to his daughter. "Because the manual clearly states that a _trained_ Sanjiyan Unkara is required for every technique in it." Genma glared back, "When we met her Parvati knew as much about martial arts as I knew about using Sanjiyan Unkara magic."

The anger drained from Ranko's face and she sheepish let her father go. "Sorry you are correct, Sensei."

Genma was stunned. Ranma had not called him Sensei during the 10 year training trip but Ranko was using the title of respect. While Ranma felt he was a total idiot Ranko obviously had different thoughts on the matter.

"But if it requires a trained Sanjiyan Unkara to learn the techniques then why are you and Cologne going over it?" asked Akane.

"Something Setsuna said about information and knowledge being the most powerful weapons one can have." Genma again gestured at the book "I was thinking that between the two of us perhaps Cologne and I could create altered forms of the techniques that we could teach. Instead we have found other things."

"References to recent martial art styles." nodded Nabiki.

"Exactly. Savate, Goju Ryu, Uechi Ryu, Kuk Sool Won, Isshinryo, and of course the already mentioned Jeet Kune Do are all referenced." Genma commented, "Every one of those styles was invented after Parvati's people were supposedly destroyed."

Realization dawned on Pai's face, "But Pai was looking for way to become human, neither Pai or Parvati known enough to teach martial arts much less write book."

"Akane was right." nodded Ranko, "If Pai was in China looking for a way to become human for 300 years than some other Sanjiyan Unkara must have wrote the manual. That it is in Japanese reinforces the idea that some of the major Kami of Japan were Sanjiyan Unkara and more importantly are likely still around."

"There is something else weird about the book. As you can see it's very old but all of the techniques refer to recent styles."

Ranko snapped her fingers, "You think it's not a training manual at all but a Sensei's reference book for making training manuals."

Genma nodded, "Cologne here says the stories of the Sazan Ryu go back to the birth of her tribe. And yet there is no referenced style predating the destruction of Pai's people in the whole book."

"The writing style is the same though out the book meaning the same person wrote it. Yet in each case the author comments about the referenced style being new." Genma paused, "Savate was developed sometime in the 18th century while Bruce Lee developed his style not more than 15 years ago."

"Ironically that is the problem both of us are having at altering the techniques in the manual." frowned Ke Lun, "Most of the refereed styles are simply _too_ new. In many cases neither Genma nor I have the foggiest idea of _what_ the author is talking about."

"Not to mention that the techniques feel well for a lack of a better term 'off'. They just don't feel right." said Genma.

"This is coming from the guy who thought teaching the Neko-Ken was a good idea?" chuckled Nabiki.

Ke Lun looked up, "Genma is right though; there is something 'off' about all the techniques in this manual. It is almost like whoever wrote them down was not total familiar with martial arts and tried to express them in terms of magic. Interestingly we think we may have found where the Neko-Ken came from."

Genma nodded "According to the manual it is a training method for a Wu. In this book the Wu has to live with cat spirits for several weeks until they have duplicated the Ki claws of those spirits. In fact, the more I look at this with the knowledge I have I wonder if this was a training manual for a Wu."

A gleeful screech caused everyone to turn to see Takuhi with Sham Pu on its back with the Ningen No Zou in her arm. Behind her were two people, an average sized boy with a total bewildered expression on his face and a woman who looked over the place with what to Nabiki was an all too familiar gleam in her eye.

Sham Pu looked down and her three eyes widened, "Great Grandmother? What you doing here?"

"That's your great grandmother? Looks more like a small troll." said the boy.

Sham Pu whapped the boy upside the head, "Yakumo will be respectful to great grandmother."

"Ok, Parvati, you don't have to be so rough. Sheesh." grumbled Yakumo.

"Pai so happy. Sham Pu bring back not only Ningen No Zou but more friends for Pai."

"Huh?" said Yakumo looking at Sham Pu, "I thought you were Pai. At least part of the time."

"Sorry for the deception Fujii-san but we needed to obtain the Ningen No Zou and Pai was already human so we sent Sham Pu to get it in Pai's place." admitted Ranko, "Used a certain way the Ningen No Zou can destroy the world and there was no way we were letting an item like that continue to float around out there. But you were supposed to bring back just the Ningen No Zou. What is with the passengers, Sham Pu?"

"Shampoo have some complications getting Ningen No Zou."

Ranko's eyes narrowed, "What kind of 'complications'?"

Sham Pu sighed "Let Shampoo land Takuhi and explain."

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After Sham Pu landed Takuhi she introduced here two passengers.

"This is Lee Ling-Ling, the head of Yogekisha Company." Sham Pu frowned "And this is Fujii Yakumo. My Wu."

"Oh what martial arts skills does Yakumo have?" beamed Pai.

Sham Pu looked down at the ground "None. Nor does he know any spirit magic."

Pai's smile fell replaced by utter shock, "Excuse Pai while Pai get kettle to make hot water." she said as she went into the house.

"Sham Pu how did this happen?" asked Ranko in an annoyed tone.

"Shampoo mess up. Again." Sham Pu looked up and saw Pai returning with the kettle "We talk in Dojo."

Once everyone was seated in the Dojo Pai started heating up the kettle with her Ki. Sham Pu fingered Pai's walking staff. "Shampoo find Yakumo first night after leaving Dojo. Or rather Yakumo find Shampoo by running into her. Shampoo loose walking staff and Takuhi get out and tear up part of district. Yakumo mortally wounded and Shampoo tried to heal. Shampoo not realizing she turning him into Wu. We get to Hong Kong and people steal Ningen No Zou. Lee Ling-Ling join us and we followed to rich woman's house. After some battles Sham Pu offer pearls Pai give her for Ningen No Zou to rich lady. Lee Ling-Ling insist on coming back with Sham Pu after that."

Pai poured the hot water over herself. Parvati sighed "Part of this is my fault Sham Pu. I should have instructed you better in the use of your powers. Well let's see what we have to work with." Yakumo suddenly found himself thrown out into the backyard. Everyone was treated to Parvati testing the skills of Sham Pu's Wu which basically consisted of Parvati largely beating the crap out of poor Yakumo.

Parvati shook her head at the twitching form in front of her. "He might be useful as a practice dummy or a target. But as Wu go he is utterly pathetic." turning Parvati walked back to the dojo she started rummaging through the backpack she had given Sham Pu. "Ah here they are. Nabiki how much you think this sapphire will fetch?" Parvati asked tossing a gem wrapped in cloth.

Nabiki caught the gem her face now in its Ice Queen mask. 'Parvati what are you doing? I know about as much about appraising gems as flying a rocketship to Mars.' she thought. Unwrapping the gem Nabiki noticed a piece of paper inside that had "$XV M" on it. Pretending to examine the gem Nabiki thought about the letters and quickly realized they were roman numbers. '15 M? 15 million? No way she would give Genma that much money. What a minute M as a Roman number means 1000. $15,000. Now that sounds reasonable.' Nabiki thought. Causally as if talking about the weather Nabiki said, "Normally I would say about 1 to 2 million yen but given the quality of your gems in their purity and cut it will easily net much more."

Parvati's smile indicated that Nabiki was correct on the amount she had thrown out. Parvati turned to Genma "Father, for all your flaws you are a reasonably good teacher of martial arts. I am offering you the full value of that sapphire if you can turn make something remotely useful out of that pathetic excuse for a Wu." Parvati said pointing at Yakumo. "Take as much time as you need to train him in martial arts. There is one condition; however, you must learn spirit magic. I believe this will accelerate Yakumo's training. Do you accept?"

Genma looked at the gem. For the amount Nabiki quoted he could live conformably for a decade at least and if he did a real good job perhaps Parvati would offer more. Extending his hand he shook Parvati's hand "Done." Getting up Genma said, "I'll get my old training manuals and start immediately."

"Hold it, father." said Parvati coolly, "You will train on the weeks Ranma and Pai are here. That way Yakumo will have two more martial artist to train with. _This_ week is spirit magic training. Come out to the back yard and I will train you in how to do a Tou-Chao summoning."

Genma nodded his head wondering if perhaps for once he was over his head.

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[Author's note: In 3x3 eyes Kunlun is actually the term for any gateway to the Sanjiyan's world. The main gate to Parvati's tribe just happened to be in the Kunlun (Konron) mountains. In typical fashion Genma thought Kunlun referred in the manual referred to the mountain range of the same name. Luckily for Ranma, Genma didn't know of the alternative name of Konron as there is an Earthly mountain range called Konron in the Sisen province of China as well as a Mt. Konron in India.


	12. Chap 12 Ego and Emotion

Ranma 1/2 is the creation of Rumiko Takahashi, 3x3 eyes (Sazan Eyes) is the creation of Yuzo Takada, Sailor Moon is the creation of Naoko Takeuchi. All are used without permission. This fan-fiction isn't intended for commercial use but is rather a tribute to Ranma 1/2, 3X3 Eyes, and Sailor Moon.

Chap 12 Ego and Emotion

Ranko looked up and saw the remains of a domed ceiling above her. Stepping out of the ruined structure Ranko saw the remains of a city. Scattered throughout it were the columns Pai described as the markers of the graves that she had made for her fellow Sanjiyan Unkara. Sitting on the steps of the building was Ranma. Noticing a battered and twisted plaque on the building Ranko read 'Hiroshima Prefecture Industrial Promotion Hall'.

"Ok brother what's with the depressing dreamscape?" fumed Ranko. "Usually when we train in your dreams its usually in an open field or a nondescript dojo. What's with this mixture of the descriptions of Hiroshima and the Sanjiyan Holy Land you've read and heard about?"

Ranma slowly stood "You really don't know do you? My great and powerful Sanjiyan Unkara sister doesn't really know." Ranma chuckled softly. Spinning around Ranma shouted "Kuan-Yaa."

Ranko effortlessly dodged the Shining Fang, "Want to play rough huh brother? All right, eat Cha-Lieh-Chong."

The exploding tearing bug blasted Ranma into one of the graves where he just laid there.

"Mind telling me what that was about." scowled Ranko.

"Even here you're better than me." said Ranma as he got up. "Is that all I am to you, Ranko a practice dummy, a target just like Yakumo is?" Ranma looked at Ranko angrily "When was the last time I was better than you in martial arts? When was the last time I was able to beat you here? How can I be the greatest martial artist of all time if I am second best to the sister who only exists because our idiotic father couldn't read Chinese."

Ranko backed up tears in her eyes, "Don't hate me. Please don't hate me. I don't want to be alone."

"Alone? How can you be alone you have Parvati, Akane, Nabiki, and Kasumi." spat Ranma. "And there is Pai your personal punching bag in the physical world. She is even more trusting of you than I ever was with Pops."

Ranko's tear streaked face instantly turned to one of rage. "Don't you dare compare my training with the idiocy our father put us through."

"Gotcha sister." smirked Ranma as he delivered an uppercut that sent Ranko flying back into the building. "Saotome Ranma eventually always wins."

"Why you sneaky little..."

"Hey sis. Look at this combo, Shou-Rin-Rei-Syou revised."

"Huh?" said Ranko as the running scale ran right at her. "Ha, you're slipping bro nothing a little hit won't take care of."

"Wrong move sis." laughed Ranma as Ranko's punch set off the lightning serpent and she fell down face first. "No way I was going to beat you trading blows so I simply got you mad and you got sloppy."

Ranko pushed herself up and shook her head. "I have to admit it worked. But that was a little cruel, Ranma. And if you start quoting father I will have to get nasty."

Ranma gulped backing away "Now, Ranko, you are my sister."

Ranko smiled evilly, "I am also a woman and what woman can resist a 'man among men'?" as she started removing her clothes.

"Excuse me sis I think its time to wake up." said Ranma as as he took off into the distance of the dreamscape.

"Forgot that this is _my_ week, brother?" said Ranko as she chased after her brother in her birthday suit.

Neko-Ken did not like the surroundings at all. Nothing to hunt. Just devastation. Then he heard a familiar voice in the distance.

"Now Ranko can't we talk about this?" said Ranma running as if hundreds of cats were after him.

"Sure after you and me have a good tumble in the hay." giggled Ranko as she followed behind with out a stitch of clothing on.

"Argggghhh. Help my sister wants to make me a pervert."

Neko-Ken smiled, the chase was its favorite game.

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Ranma opened his eyes to the waking world, 'Gads I hate when she does that. Why does my body feel strange? It hasn't felt this way since...' Ranma jumped up, ran into the house, up the stairs and into the bathroom. In the mirror was the face of Ranko.

'Nice job sis. Sis? Sis where are you?'

'I'm a little busy now. Neko-Ken is chasing me.'

Ranma mentally chuckled 'Serves you right. Just run back to the hall in the dreamscape. That should end the dream.'

'Now don't do anything stupid till I get back there.'

'Hey I'm not Pops.'

'You sure? This stunt of yours has his hands all over it.'

Ranma-Chan just scowled.

Ranma and Ranko weren't the only ones having a little spat in their dreamscape. Pai and Parvati were having some words in theirs as well.

"Pai, there are times when you are denser than that excuse of a father of ours." Parvati stated in a dreamscape of the Tendo back yard.

"Pai not understand why sister angry."

"Arrggghh!" screamed Parvati clenching her fists, "That is another thing. After 300 years can't you use a blasted pronoun. It's always 'Pai this' 'Pai that', can't you use the word 'I' for once?" Parvati scowled looking at Pai, "Where in the Sanjiyan Holy Land was my brain when I created you. Not only are you eternally happy to the point of nausium, but you are so naive that you wouldn't have lasted 10 minutes as a human on your own."

Pai scowled, "Sister think she better than Pai because she Sanjiyan Unkara. Ke Lun was right, you used to think of Wu as little better than a guardian slave. Ranma force you to admit that in some things a Wu can be better than you."

Parvati smirked, "True but you're not that Wu."

Pai scowled and formed a red battle aura. "You think so, sister? I'll show you, confidence exploding bug." and a blue blast wave enveloped Parvati.

Parvati opened her eyes. 'Ouch. If that is even a quarter as powerful in the real world that is one nasty attack. At least Pai showed she can get really angry instead of being little miss annoyingly happy until you want to throw up. Wait a minute this was Pai's week so what am doing in the waking world? Also why do I feel so slow its almost...Kuso.' Parvati dashed into the house taking two stairs at a time to get to the bathroom. Practically piling into a scowling Ranko Parvati looked into the mirror and saw the mark of Wu on her forehead.

"Pai you get out here right now." muttered Parvati, "Pai."

'You think you better than I am then _you_ be Wu for today.' Pai mentally laughed.

"Ranko, we got a problem." Parvati looked down at the ground "I got Pai angry enough she forced me awake. Seems now wants me to see what it is like to be Wu."

"Welcome to the club, sis. I guess when I'm like this you should call me Ranma-chan." frowned Ranma-chan.

"What happened, Wu?" asked Parvati as she looked up.

Ranma-chan opened all three of her eyes, "Does this look like the face of a Wu, sis?"

Parvati backed up from the gaze a little frightened. "No, it doesn't."

Ranma-chan's features softened a bit seeing Parvati's reaction, "I went a little too far in trying to beat Ranko in my dreams. She pulled the little trick of coming on to me." Ranma-chan blushed, "I can't deal with the idea of my own sister acting like she wants to have sex with me so I kind of woke up. She's now playing tag with Neko-Ken."

"Looks like we really are the children of Saotome Genma." Parvati snorted as she turned on the hot water in the furo. "Ok, we switch back and let our other selves calm down."

"Well father will be happy. That means he gets to do martial arts today."

After the two settled down in the furo and changed to their hot water forms they both sat quietly.

"Ranma, how do you feel about being Wu?" asked Parvati softly.

"I have all the time in the world and I have fantastic sparing partners, it's great." Ranma said smiling.

"I sense a 'but' in there brother. Let me guess you and Ranko got into it because she can access Ki and Chakra better than you."

Ranma nodded, "Pops always said expressing your feelings made you weak so I not that good at this," Ranma sighed, "I guess I'm jealous of Ranko. No matter how good I become in martial arts she will always be better simply because as a Sanjiyan Unkara she can channel Ki and Chakra into something other than spells better than I can." looking over at Parvati Ranma continued, "So what you and Pai get into it over?"

"The old feelings I had of 'I'm Sanjiyan Unkara and you mortals are little better than dirt.' plus the new one of actually having to deal with Pai on a daily basis." Parvati rubbed her head "Pai is too happy all the time and when it comes to worldly knowledge is dumber than our father."

"But she got mad enough to pound Kuno and she really wanted to hurt that author of the Neko-Ken my father used," Ranma smiled "At least she has better social skills than I have."

Parvati sighed, "I guess I was too hard on Pai. But I and not used to dealing with her like this. I guess I relied on leaving her in control too much when there was something out here I didn't want to deal with."

"The mental equivalent of the Saotome Ryu Ogi." Ranma chuckled.

Parvati laughed, "Run and hide until you can figure out something better to do."

Ranma got up "Let's get out before we prune and get dressed."

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Akane, Hotaru, and Sham Pu were sparring in the yard. Ranma could see from the way they moved both Akane and Sham Pu were in human form. "Gads I didn't realize just how dependent on my Sanjiyan Unkara form I was becoming. I move like a slug and have all the grace of an elephant." commented Akane.

"Shampoo not like feeling either."

"Perhaps we'll all get use to it." said Ranma offhandedly.

"Ranma? I thought this was still Ranko's week." said Akane.

"It was until my ego got in the way." Ranma looked at Akane with sad eyes "Ranko and I spar in our dreams and well I tried some underhanded emotional stuff to win."

"What?" asked Akane in a sharp tone.

"Don't be too hard on Ranma I did the same stupid thing with Pai. Both of us have some major fixing to do tonight." Parvati closed her eyes looking tired, "Hotaru how do _you_ feel about being Wu?"

Hotaru smiled, "I'm free of the demon and I have a friend who will never leave me. Don't I Akane?"

Akane hugged the little girl, "That's right Hotaru."

Parvati collapsed on her knees crying, "Parvati, what's wrong?" asked Shampoo.

"Your great grandmother was right. Before I met Ranma I thought of a Wu as little more than a guardian slave. Then after I made him Wu he basically pounded the crap out of his father to adopt me, Pai, and Ranko into the Saotome Clan. He really liked and respected me as a person. How could I treat him like a slave? I was so alone and for the first time in 300 years I had a family again. I sorry Ranma. Please don't hate me. Please I don't want to be alone again."

Ranma knelt and held his weeping sister, "Those were the same words Ranko said to me in the dreamscape." he said in a hushed tone as realization struck him, "It's all right, Parvati;I forgive you and I am so sorry Ranko. Until now I didn't realize just how alike we really are." Holding his sobbing sister stroked her hair "Sh sh sh Parvati I'm here." Ranma frowned, "It's just another thing our father was wrong about."

"And what thing would that be,Ranma?" asked Ke Lun who been observing the three girls sparring.

"Showing your emotions makes you weak. Parvati held to that view for 300 years and it was tearing her up inside. It made me hurt Ranko. It's wrong."

A panda looked at Parvati and shook its head and pulled out a sign. 'I thought that showing emotion was a sign of weakness.' he then flipped the sign over 'When we met Parvati I thought she proved my point.' the panda pulled out another sign 'Now I just don't know anymore.'

Ke Lun nodded looking at the sobbing Parvati, "My tribe believes the same thing and if a male can admit he's not sure then I have to admit that perhaps we were both wrong."

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The walk to school after breakfast was strange for everyone.

"I just don't know how to relate to ordinary people." said a frustrated Parvati.

"Well you talk about common interests. Favorite hobbies, music, the latest gossip. Basic small talk." said Akane.

"Shampoo think she have problem. She not have that many things in common with people here."

Parvati smiled a little "Your Japanese is improving Sham Pu. Part of the reason Pai and I got into a fight was that her speech patterns make her sound like an idiot."

Ranma chuckled, "Considering the amount of socializing Pops allowed me to do I imagine my speech is not that good either."

"It's better than Sham Pu's or Pai's. And Pai has had 300 years to improve her speech." Parvati got a thoughtful expression on her face, "you know before she blasted me in the dreamscape Pai actually used a pronoun."

"Sounds like the way Popsused to encourage me. Insult you until you did what he wanted just to prove he was wrong."

"That sounds horrible." said Akane the sense of disgust clear on her face.

"I'm using father's training methods?" Parvati put her hand to her forehead, "Oh brother."

"Yes?" said Ranma with a playful gleam in his eye.

"Cute, Ranma. Very cute." Nabiki chuckled, "By the way Parvati what was with that stunt with the gem?"

Parvati smiled, "Father is a total baka when it comes to the value of something. By contrast I knew from the way you handled the ruby I gave you, you were far smarter. By giving Genma the impression that you have a knowledge of precious stones I have provided a reason for him to use you if he somehow manages to raid my gem stash."

Akane looked at Parvati in horror. "Genma can't be that bad. Can he?"

"It's not so much a case of him being that bad; it is a case of him being that _stupid_." Ranma commented, "It is the way Pops handled everything during our 10 year trip. Don't think, just do and hope that it does not blow up in your face or if it does you can use the Saotome Ryu Ogi."

"Which is little more than a fancy label for run, hide, and think." Parvati said frowning, "Speaking of thinking or the lack of it, it looks like the dating dimwits decided to set their alarms early today."

Akane scowled as she saw a smaller version of the dating horde. "Blast, looks like they finally figured out we were coming to school early."

"Shampoo my love. Don't worry I will save you." same a voice out of nowhere. Suddenly the dating horde was being pounding by a guy with long hair and long white robes.

"Oh no. Shampoo afraid stupid Mousse might follow her."

"Why is he now attacking the flag pole?" asked a stunned Parvati.

Sham Pu sighed, "Mousse not see very well but too proud to wear glasses all the time."

"Like that character in an American cartoon I once saw, Mr. Magoo." said Akane "He kept mistaking objects for people and all kind of silly things because he refused to admit his eyesight was bad."

"That is the annoying won't give up would be boyfriend of yours?" asked Ranma, "My sympathies."

"Never fear the Blue Thunder is here." yelled Kuno as he leapt into the battle.

"Well at least he is not attacking us." said Ryoga as he tried again to pull his hand out of Hotaru's iron grip.

"Ryoga, please stop pulling away." said Hotaru smiling, "They told me the last time they let you go anywhere by yourself you got lost for nearly three weeks. Parvati needs to train you in the use of your cursed form."

"Oh, Shampoo, I've missed you." came Mousse's voice from the dust cloud.

"You cannot restrain the Blue Thunder. I will break out of your grapple and send you back to the hell Saotome summoned you from."

"MOUSSE PUT ON STUPID GLASSES SO YOU STOP MISTAKING SCHOOL IDIOT FOR SHAMPOO." Sham Pu bellowed as a faint red aura formed around her and Ranma's eyes widened a little bit.

"How dare you pretend to be Shampoo. Painiyao Chuan."

"I fight on foul sorcerer's servant."

"And for the first bid I'll open with a pair of idiots." said Nabiki.

"Ohohohoho. You never told me that your school had such a handsome boy, brother dear." laughed a girl in leotard that left very little to the imagination as she jumped down and smiled at Ranma.

"I'll see your two idiots and raise you a laughing loon." said Akane wincing at the laugh.

"I am Kuno Kodachi, the Black Rose. And you are?" she said bowing slightly.

Ranma backed up "I'm Saotome Ranma." he gulped. Compared to the idea that this girl took a liking to him Ranko coming on to him didn't look so bad.

'Oh. does that mean you and I will have a little fun tonight?' came a chuckling mental voice.

'Ranko? I take I you lost Neko-Ken.'

'Uh huh. What about it brother it's not like you would really be doing it. After all it's only in your mind.'

Ranma mentally sighed, 'I know what you're trying to do Ranko and I'm sorry that I hurt you like that. I let my ego about winning get the better of me.'

'We'll talk about that later.'

Parvati put her hands to her head. Ranma glanced over "You all right sis?"

"Not really. It's a little early for this and its giving me a headache."

"You are Ranma's sister?" Kodachi looked Parvati up and down, "You have the bearing of noble blood."

Parvati dropped her hands and looked at Kodachi stunned, "You can tell? When I explained to Ranma that my fiancé wiped out my people he had his father adopt me into his clan but my formal name is Princess Parvati IV."

"Princess Parvati IV. Has a nice ring to it." smiled Kodachi.

Parvati smiled back "Thank you."

"How dare the foul sorcerer ensnare my sister. I the Blue Thunder will defeat you." yelled Kuno as he rushed in to attack.

"How he get away from Mousse?" said Ranma as he dodged all around Kuno's attacks.

"Magoo-sama is busy attacking a tree." scowled Sham Pu, "WILL IDIOTIC MOUSSE PUT STUPID GLASSES BACK ON BAKA HEAD AND STOP ATTACKING TREE." she screamed her battle aura increasing.

"Hey Shampoo. You're forming a battle aura just like mine." chuckled Akane.

Sham Pu looked down and saw the red battle aura, "This is great." she said smiling but then frowned as the aura faded dramatically. "What wrong with battle aura?"

"Red is the color of anger" said Ranma as he balanced on one hand and kicked Kuno in the chest sending him across the school grounds. "Once you lost the anger you lost the battle aura."

"Ranma's aura blue. What blue mean?"

"Confidence."

"No amount of confidence will save you from the wrath of the Blue Thunder." screamed Kuno as he charged again.

"Go eat a Ki spirit attack and dry up." Parvati said angrily gesturing with her hands "Cha-Lieh-Chong revised"

The exploding bug hit Kuno but instead of blasting him across the grounds it totally destroyed his clothes leaving him in his underwear.

"The Blue Thunder fights on."

"What in the name of the Silver Millennium is going on here?!" yelled an annoyed Meiou Setsuna as she ran though the school gates.

"Nothing much, just your average morning at Furinkan High." said Nabiki calmly.

"Now the foul sorcerer dares to ensnare a teacher. Have at you." exclaimed Kuno as he kept swinging his bokken at Ranma who was dodging all over the place.

"Hotaru, could you please transform?" said Akane as she watched Ranma kick Kuno away again.

"Sure. Saturn Eternal Make Up! Now what?" asked the now adult Hotaru not noticing that Ryoga had some blood coming out of his nose.

"Could you call up the Silence Glaive?'

"Ok." Hotaru said summoning the huge pole arm.

"Thanks." said Akane as she grabbed the weapon and hit Kuno in the head with the back part of the blade yelling "KUNO NO BAKA." knocking him out cold. "Thanks. I needed that." said Akane as she handed the Glaive back to Hotaru.

"Brother can be such a trial. Well I the Black Rose must return to my school. Hohoho." laughed Kodachi as she leapt away.

Shuddering at the laugh, Ranma looked over at Ryoga who was just standing there pinching his nose. "Come on man what is wrong with you?"

"Hotaru was naked during part of the transformation."

"So what? Shampoo, Pai, and Ranko bathed that way for months."

Ryoga looked at Parvati and then at Shampoo. The nosebleed promptly got worse followed by Ryoga passing out. "Oh, for crying out loud. It's a wonder that he doesn't pass out when he sees himself in Ran-Pao-Pao form."

"Would someone please explain what just happened." fumed Setsuna, "And while you are at it why is that young man attacking that tree?"

"I'll explain on the way to class," said Ranma as he hefted Ryoga on to his shoulder.

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Setsuna sat back in her chair after Ranma finished the overview of the Kuno and Mousse encounter, 'This isn't a school; it's an asylum for the totally deranged, hormonal idiots, and insanely powerful martial artists.' she thought. "Now I understand why the history teacher position was empty for two years." Setsuna muttered out loud.

"Wait until the father of the two Kuno siblings shows up." chuckled Nabiki

"He's worse?" Setsuna asked with dread. "I only did a quick scan of Ranma's life in that other timeline so I didn't get all the details."

"Well he has a thing for Hawaii and bowl haircuts. Oh and he is the principal."

"You forgot to mention that story is he has a thing that looks like a palm tree growing out of his head." chirped Akane.

"Oh so that is who that idiot I saw in the other timeline was." said Setsuna who then opened her eyes wide in realization, "**That** is my boss?! I'd be better off if Queen Beryl was running the school."

Looking at the clock Ranma commented, "Well we better be getting to class. I wonder how long before Mousse gives up on attacking the tree."

"Hopefully long time" said Sham Pu angrily.

Things at school continued to take a turn for the bizarre. At physics class:

"The First Law of Thermodynamics says that energy cannot be created nor destroyed." the teacher looked up "Yes, Parvati, you have a question."

"So you're saying that energy like Ki and Chakra would stay with a person unless used for something else."

"Hmm. I hadn't thought about that but yes that would be true."

"And magical energy would have to come from somewhere."

"Uh magical energy?" said the teacher uneasily.

"Like what I use to summon my friends." Parvati gestured "Shou-Rin" and a flat scaly bug started running around all over the place. "See."

The professor blinked his eyes intrigued, "could you do that again?"

"Sure."

While Parvati demonstrated spirit summoning for the Physics teacher Ranma considered something. 'If energy can not be created nor destroyed then how can Ranko and I have different stores of Ki and Chakra?'

'Doesn't the fact magic is involved solve the problem?' asked Ranko mentally.

'From what I gathered from Elder Ke Lun even magic must follows certain laws. Also remember to cast spells we know from personal experience Sanjiyan Unkara used Ki and Chakra to power their spells. Contrary to what Pop may have thought there is no such thing as a free lunch.'

'Free lunch included side order of fiancée,' Ranko mentally giggled.

'But where does a Wu get the Ki and Chakra to cast a nearly endless number of spells?' Ranma mentally commented as he wrote down the force equation the teacher had put on the board.

Ranko mentally frowned. Ranma was now looking at martial arts in a total different way and posing questions no one really had the answer to. Ranko looked through Ranma's eyes for an answer and she saw faint lines of energy going into Ranma. That was the answer; Wu were like Ki energy sponges absorbing excess Ki from their surroundings.

Ranma physically frowned at this revelation. Just as a normal martial artist could use Ki and Chakra faster than they could replenish it then a Wu could drain the Ki and Chakra from the surrounding area faster than it could be replaced. While a Wu didn't have to worry about dying as a result of this it did pose other problems. What would happened to living things if a Wu continued to try and draw on Ki and Chakra in an area that couldn't replenish it fast enough? Would the drain simply stop or more frighteningly would the Wu become like a life feeding Gaki? Another thing occurred to Ranma. Where were the Sailor Senshi getting the energy for their magical attacks from?

Ranma had to smile. A course he once thought the most boring and irrelevant to his training was now given him insight to the powers of both Sanjiyan Unkara and their Wu. It was also posing some very awkward questions that he really needed the answers to.

Puzzled over the result of Parvati's spirit summing the physics teacher tried to explain it in scientific terms. While he did succeed it did have the annoying side effect of resulting in three Shou-Rin running around the school.

At gym, "Shampoo my love."

"ARRGGHH. There is a pervert in the shower room." yelled one female voice.

"Somebody get this freak off of me." scream another one.

"Never fear the Blue Thunder will save you."

"OH NO there's now another one."

Gym class quickly degenerated into a small scale riot as most of the female students played pound the pervert with Kuno and Mousse while Shampoo yelled at Mousse to put his glasses on. Ranma and Parvati were otherwise occupied rolling on the floor laughing their heads off at the sight.

Homec: "What in the name of all the Kami is this?!" yelled the homec teacher as she tried desperately to get the taste of Parvati's dish out of her mouth.

"Its just a little something Pai learned to make for herself and her oni friends." Parvati beamed as she sampled her dish. "it's so hard to get the Tabasco sauce, honey, and vinegar to have the right mix of flavor."

On a whim Nabiki ran her hand under some cold water and with great dread ate some of Akane's cooking. Instead of the normal gut wrenching results Nabiki found she liked the dish. 'Well this is another nice benefit of being Sanjiyan Unkara.'

Akane looked at Nabiki, "You like my cooking?"

"It does have interesting flavor."

"Oh let me try." said Parvati as she ate a big spoonful. "Wonderful." swinging her hand her staff appeared, 'Takuhi come out and try this."

The class got a little queasy as Parvati's long time friend dove into Akane's meal with gusto.

During lunch Akane and Parvati talked about homec and new dishes for Kasumi to try and make. Nabiki was wondering if Genma would survive being a test subject for Sanjiyan Unkara cooking. The rest of the day settled down aside from the time Mousse stumbled into the girl's restroom and got pounded again.

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"The boy doesn't even have the basics," grumbled Genma as he looked at the battered bag of flesh in front of him.

"And without the basics he cannot learn more advanced techniques." frowned Ke Lun.

"I'm going to go though my manuals again perhaps there is something in them that will help," said Genma getting up.

"Ah, Genma, just the person I wanted to see." smiled Ling-Ling.

"Hello Ling-Ling. I'm going to see if I can find some more basic moves to teach Yakumo."

"While you're doing that perhaps you could tell me what you know of spirit magic," said Ling Ling.

"I don't think I will be of much use to you in that regard."

"Nonsense, you never know what information could be valuable."

Ke Lun shook her head. Ling-Ling and Genma both wanted easy money and were willing to go though some extreme methods to get it. Sensing some powerful Ki she turned to see three Sanjiyan Unkara, one Wu, and a boy. "Who is the boy?"

"This is Ryoga, an old friend who fell into Pool of Drowned Ran-Pao-Pao." turning to Ryoga Ranma continued, "Ryoga this is Ke Lun, Elder of the Joketsuzoku."

"Shampoo, Mousse, and Cologne. Who's next, Lotion?" snickered Ryoga.

Ranma whapped Ryoga on the back of his head, "Be polite. Ke Lun is a skilled martial artist."

"Mousse?" Ke Lun asked as her eyes narrowed.

"As I understand it his proper name is Mu Si." said Parvati. "Wash thread, hmph. Annoying blind baka is more like it."

"That I will agree with. Where is he?" asked Ke Lun in annoyed tone.

"Last we heard he wandered into the girl's restroom and mistook a girl for Sham Pu. The rest as they say is history." Ranma chuckled "Instead of white he wound up black, blue, and white."

"Shampoo wish Mousse wind up some where else." Shampoo said her battle aura flaring up again.

Ke Lun widened her eyes, "You can form a battle aura? Interesting I didn't realize you had become that skilled."

"Actually I think its do to her being Sanjiyan Unkara." admitted Ranma. "Sham Pu though is in my view using the wrong emotion."

Walking in front of Shampoo Ranma smiled, "Sham Pu, Ke Lun found out that the tournament was originally to find the best warrior so they could with the blessing of an Honored One go into the Pool of Drowned Sanjiyan Unkara."

"Think on the confidence and pride you had going in that tournament and the fact that you achieved the true purpose of it. A purpose lost for generations. You are the best of your tribe's generation." as Ranma continued Sham Pu's aura changed color to blue and became more intense. "You will learn the powers of a Sanjiyan Unkara. We will all make sure Yakumo is trained to be a good Wu. Nothing is beyond your ability. Not even speaking Japanese."

Sham Pu stood there looking at the blue aura she formed. "Ranma right. Sham... no _I_ was not using the right emotion."

Ranma smiled, "Now imagine pulling that aura into you but not letting go of the feeling."

Shampoo closed her eyes and the aura shank until it disappeared. When she opened her eyes Ke Lun was taken aback. "Her eyes they're solid blue."

Ranma nodded, "Parvati's eyes were like coals when she pulled in a battle aura caused by anger so pulling an aura of confidence results in blue eyes." Ranma than smiled, "Sham Pu why don't you and Ke Lun spar so I can see what else this technique improves."

"I'm afraid that my skill is more than a match for Shampoo's"

Ranma chuckled, "Oh I know that you are likely a tenth Dan of the Joketsuzoku Ryu and as a human Sham Pu was first or second Dan but I think you are going to be _very_ surprised."

'It's no contest between a second and tenth Dan. What is he up to?' thought Ke Lun. "Let's see how this technique improves your skill great granddaughter." said Ke Lun as she swung her staff.

Sham Pu was surprised by how slow Ke Lun seemed, 'Never show your opponent all your power at the start of a fight. But why is she holding back so much?'

Ke Lun on the other hand was stunned by the speed Sham Pu showed. It would normally take a fifth or six Dan of Joketsuzoku Ryu to dodge that. Ke Lun narrowed her eyes. Sham Pu's stance was still that of a first Dan with holes and weakness that a tenth Dan like herself could exploit. But it was as if those holes and weaknesses weren't there. Time to stop playing around, "Kachu Tenshin Amaguriken!"

"Chin-Kuu revised," said Sham Pu taking a defense stance as if she held a shield.

'Ouch. That felt like I just punched a metal shield. What the blazes?' Ke Lun looked at the blue shield Sham Pu held on her arm 'That thing's made of pure Ki but its like iron.'

"Cha-Lieh-Chong Bakusai Tenketsu revised." Sham Pu yelled as she hit the ground.

Ke Lun was thrown back by the ground buckling under her. 'The breaking point but not really the breaking point. It's a mixture of Sanjiyan Unkara magic and martial arts. The Sanjiyan Unkara Ganso Musabetsu Kakuto Ryu. This is definitely a problem.'

"Cascading Kuan-Yaa." Ke Lun got knocked back by the Ki based shining fang.

"Huu-Yao-Chichiu revised." Ke Lun was now in a web of blue Ki.

'This new school of martial arts is insane. Sham Pu is tossing me around like I was a white belt.' Ke Lun held up her hand "Enough! I have seen more than enough."

Shampoo blinked, "I beat great grandmother?!" she said the amazement clear in her voice.

Ranma nodded, "Perhaps but I see one flaw in this technique." gesturing at the Ki web Ranma shouted "Shi-Yao-Chong revised!" at which point the web holding Ke Lun fell apart.

"The technique is weak against attacks that drain Ki. Happosai's specially" said Ke Lun.

"Not to mention the build up takes time not something you have a lot of in a surprise attack." commented Parvati.

"True but as you saw the technique is powerful. Imagine what can be done once one has truly mastered Ki and Chakra and can call the boost up anytime."

"Look guys I didn't mind the trip to Weirdness Central, but really have to get back home." said Yakumo who had regenerated from Genma latest attempt at training him.

Genma poked his head out, "I have much research to do but you will be back here tomorrow night. Do **not** make me look for you."

"Shampoo my love, I have so missed you."

"Somebody get this idiot off me." yelled Setsuna.

Parvati put her head in her hands, "The Blind Baffoon found his way here. Oh joy."

Ranma growled, "We have got to keep him away from the Dojo. The last thing I need is that love sick moron becoming Sanjiyan Unkara."

"I'll be leaving now," said Yakumo as he ran down the street.

"I better follow him. While he is in no danger those around him could be." said Shampoo muttering under her breath as she followed Yakumo down the street, "I hope Genma gets him trained soon. It's ridiculous I have to baby sit my own Wu."

Across the street a figure in a trenchcoat watched with interest its unusually large eyes made all the more obvious by its green scaly skin. It looked at the dojo and then at the receding Shampoo and Yakumo as if deciding which was the more interesting endeavor. Finally making up its mind the creature set off in the direction of the Shinjuku Ward. As it moved it muttered to itself "Gheh, gheh, gheh. Mistress Shun-Kai said to watch and learn. Also never attack again as did in China less we make these our enemy. Gheh, gheh, gheh."

"Pluto planet power, make up!" yelled Setsuna.

"Shampoo, what happened to your clothes?"

"Eat Time Staff, you pervert." at which point everybody got to see Mousse take a nice little trip into a wall followed by a royally pissed off Sailor Scout entering the yard. "And be thankful I don't wrap the Time Staff around your head."

Ke Lun hopped over to the dazed Mousse. "I thought I lost you in China."

"Elder Cologne, why are there three of you?" asked Mousse before he passed out.

"Setsuna, we need to get those water castes out of here." said Parvati.

Walking over to the Koi pond Setsuna splashed her face triggering her transformation into demon. "I found that I can travel to the world of the Sanjiyan in this form far easier than using the Time Gates."

Ranma noticed Nabiki looking at Lee Ling-Ling who has having a very animated talk with Genma, "Something wrong?"

Nabiki turned with a sad smile, "Seeing Lee Ling-Ling is like looking at a snapshot of my own future. Can't say I like the picture much."

"I got a worse picture for you; Mousse here as Sanjiyan." Ranma said gesturing with his thumb at the out cold martial artist. "Setsuna, Parvati got a lot of water from Pool of Drowned female Sanjiyan Unkara, how long is it going to take to get it out of here?"

"Not long. Interestingly there is a ghost town here on the Sanjiyan world. Only its architecture is Japanese not Tibetan." Setsuna paused as if considering something. "It was as if everyone had just gotten up and left. I did find a letter addressed to a warrior from the ruler of the city." Handing the letter to Ranma, "I think you will recognize both the names."

Ranma face paled as he read the letter and at the end his hand dropped to his side letting the letter drop from it.

"Ranma, what's wrong?" asked Akane as Nabiki picked up the letter and read it. "It's a letter to Hachiman, Akane," said Nabiki who paled as she read the writer's name.

"The patron kami of the Shogun?"

"But that is not what stunned Ranma, it's the writer's name at the bottom." said Nabiki as Akane impulsively grabbed the letter.

Akane looked at the beautiful calligraphy saying the name out loud for everyone to hear, "Omikami Amaterasu?!"

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	13. Chap 13 Twilight of the Kami

Chapter 13 Twilight of the Kami

Ranma 1/2 is the creation of Rumiko Takahashi, 3x3 eyes (Sazan Eyes) is the creation of Yuzo Takada, Sailor Moon is the creation of Naoko Takeuchi. All are used without permission. This fan-fiction isn't intended for commercial use but is rather a tribute to Ranma 1/2, 3x3 Eyes, and Sailor Moon.

A magnificent palace stood in the middle of the obviously prosperous little village. In many respects it resembled an idealized version of Tokyo back during the end of the feudal period except for one thing: aside from themselves not a single person walked the streets or could be seen anywhere.

"Creepy," commented Ranma, "I see what you mean by ghost town."

"Neither my powers as Sailor Pluto nor as this demon could I find anyone here." said Setsuna with a water cask on her shoulder.

"Well where are we going to store these things?" said Akane glancing around "I don't want to be here any longer than I have to."

"If you're worrying about the owners coming back don't. The most recent document I found here commented on Commodore Perry." Setsuna stated simply.

"Who was Commodore Perry?" asked Parvati.

"An American who forced Japan to reopen trade with the West. Not too long before the US fought its Civil War." recited Nabiki as she shifted the cask on her shoulder.

"But that was over 130 years ago." said Akane nervously "This place should be fallen down and be overgrown."

Parvati chuckled, "Well there is enough magic here to prevent that."

"But not your magic or mine. It is close to both though." Setsuna commented as she shifted her wings.

"Does that mean the Japanese Kami were really decedents of Sanjiyan Unkara?" said an awed Akane.

Parvati thought for a moment, "Perhaps. My tribe were regarded by the Hindus as kami. Just like I didn't know of the Silver Millennium it's possible that there was a group here I didn't know about either. "

"Kuso." muttered Ranma, "Something powerful just showed up."

"I feel it too, Ranma." scowled Setsuna, "But I don't feel any menace to it."

"Hello?" everyone turned to see a beautiful woman in badly made white leather armor, a necklace made of teeth hanging from her neck, and an Eastern sword in a scabbard hanging off her hip. "I am so glad to see someone again. I been looking around and you are the first people I have seen in this domain in over 40 years."

"We're visitors and were looking for a place to store this magical water." said Parvati setting down the cask she had been carrying, "I'm Saotome Parvati, this is my brother Ranma, our friends Tendo Akane and her sister Nabiki, as well as our teacher Meiou Setsuna."

Bowing slightly the woman frowned, "I am glad to meet you. I only wish I could give you my name but the truth is I don't know what it is. The only name I can give you is the one the dragon who died here gave me, Pendragon Oni." Pendragon Oni fidgeted, "He didn't know much Japanese. He came here badly burned and I nursed him as best I could but it wasn't enough. On his death bed he willed me this sword and scabbard he had made for the ruler of another island long ago, his skin for armor, his teeth to create this necklace, and my name." Oni pointed to a shrine near the palace, "I buried him near that palace."

"Then the armor and necklace you're wearing..." said Nabiki.

"Are the remains of the last companion I had here." finished Oni. "He made a curious comment in English about the sword 'The scabbard is worth 10 of the sword'. Never really understood that but it did have the family name 'Pendragon' etched on the handle.

Nabiki eyes widened in realization, "Kami-Sama. That means your sword is Excalibur."

"The sword of King Arthur?" stammered Akane, "How do you come to that conclusion?"

"Simple sis. I was doing a paper on King Arthur and found out that Arthur's father's full name was Pendragon Uther. Also statement about the scabbard being worth 10 of the sword is a central part of the legend."

"How do you get all these weird assignments, Nabiki?"

"I don't _get_ them Akane. I ask for them, for extra credit." smirked Nabiki.

"Ladies please. Oni-sama, would you know of a safe place to store this magical water?" asked Parvati.

"Parvati have you gone nuts? You want to leave this water alone with someone we just met?" yelled Akane.

"Setsuna said she doesn't sense any menace from Pendragon Oni." Parvati yelled back, "Besides I get the impression from Nabiki this Excalibur was _very_ important. I don't think that even on his death bed its creator would just hand it to anyone who walked along."

"I understand your wariness, Tendo-san. If it would make you feel better I could go with you when you leave." Oni frowned, "Besides I value companionship more than any magic."

Akane looked into the eyes of Pendragon Oni and saw the depth of loneliness there. If Oni was faking it she was a real good actor. "Ok, you can come back with us."

Pendragon Oni smiled "Excellent. You can store it where I live, in the palace."

"You live in the palace?" stammered Nabiki.

"Yes I always felt like I belonged there even before Mer-chan showed up."

"Mer-chan. Short for Merlin, right?" Nabiki asked as she smirked at Akane.

"Yes. You seem to know a lot more than I do about my friend."

"Actually I know of the legends and stories that grew up around him and his student King Arthur. The real King Arthur is a mystery to most people."

"Sadly a mystery that will still remain. Mer-chan only gave me the broadest details. He also kept saying something about it being the only way to end the war but he never said what 'it' was or what war. Then he'd babble something in his sleep about a fat man and a little boy destroying cities. Never made much sense."

Ranma stopped cold, "Oh it makes sense, a very nasty sort of sense. In fact the dreamscape I created where I emotionally attacked Ranko was a mixture of the descriptions of the Sanjiyan Holy Hand after Siva was done with it and Hiroshima on August 6, 1945."

"What does Hiroshima have to do with a fat man and a little boy?" asked Oni.

"They're not people, Oni." Ranma said his voice strangely cold and distant. "They're the names of bombs: the atomic bombs that devastated the two Japanese cities Hiroshima and Nagasaki."

Parvati paled, "Ranma what made you pick that combination?"

"The comment about your fiancé and the inventor of the bomb making the same statement: 'Behold I have become death the destroyer of worlds,'" Ranma looked at his sister sadly, "Even I as erratic as my schooling has been have heard of the day the sun rose twice on the city of Hiroshima. The day when 100,000 people died some of them vaporized." Ranma sighed, "It wasn't until you collapsed sobbing about not wanting to be alone that I realized the _true_ lessons of Hiroshima."

"And what lessons are those Ranma?" asked Parvati curious.

"That no matter your resolve and your abilities there are just some battles you cannot win. That and the cost of victory can be higher than you are willing to pay."

'So you admit your victory over me came at a price you really weren't ready to pay' Ranko mentally barked.

'Yes and there is a third lesson as well. Even the most bitter of foes can become friends.'

'I surprised, Ranma, when did you actually start thinking along those lines?'

'When I saw Parvati and you emotionally fall apart.'

'I did not emotionally fall apart' Ranko mentally yelled.

Parvati noticed Ranma wince. "You and Ranko at it again?"

"Not exactly. It seems she also has my stubbornness."

'I am not stubborn.' Ranko mentally yelled.

"If Pops and I can admit we're wrong Ranko but you can't what exactly _is_ that?" Ranma said out loud annoyed at his sister not backing down.

Ranko mentally paused soaking in that Ranma had gotten mad enough to physically talk to her. 'Seems neither of us is having a good day today.'

'Mainly because I pulled a total baka stunt to beat you. Remember what Parvati said about my social skills?'

'Yes if there was an anything goes school of social etiquette you could at best defeat a brain damaged swamp rat.' Ranko mentally chuckled.

'Wrong sis. It was if there was an anything goes school of social etiquette _we_ could at best defeat a brain damaged swamp rat. She included herself in that statement and because all you have to go on is the training our father gave us you as well.'

'What of Pai?'

'Pai has social skills out the wazoo. You notice how despite the weirdness Parvati generates everyone seams to be at ease with Pai? Now mind you when it comes to street smarts in dealing with people like Pops she can be pathetic but when it comes to becoming friends with people she has _that_ down pat.'

'So what are we going to do tonight?'

'We are not going to spar like we usually do but simply talk. It obvious that holding emotions in like Parvati did is not good. We have to relate to each other in context of more than sparring partners.'

Ranma smiled, "Well tonight is going to be interesting. Ranko and I have never really had a heart to heart but given the why she and you fell apart its long overdue."

Parvati sighed heavily "Given what we said to each other perhaps its time Pai and I had are own hear to heart before things get that bad."

Oni smiled pointing to one of the casks, "Need any help with those?"

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Ke Lun, Genma, and Ling Ling were all discussing on what to do next as the number of people there had well exceeded the ability of the Tendo household to house them all. Genma glanced up and noticed that a new person had returned. "Great. Ranma, what are you doing? We are overloaded as it is."

"Meet the last remnant of the Japanese Kami." said Ranma nervously "Sadly she cannot remember her real name and so goes by the name given to her by her last friend."

"And what name does she go by?" asked Genma as he stood up.

"Pendragon Oni in honor of my friend's pupil Pendragon Arthur the last mortal to own the sword on my hip. The frightening thing is nearly everything before 120 years ago is a total blank. The only place that brought back any memories was the palace but I have no idea what role I played there," said Oni as she nervously fingered her necklace which started to glow with a pale blue light.

"Oni, what is with your necklace?" asked Akane

Oni looked down and smiled, "This was why Mer-chan willed me his teeth. He said that if I made them into a necklace and handled it while talking to someone it would glow if that person was a blood relation. I was so startled at seeing you and your friends that I didn't think touch it to see if any of you were blood kin. Blue means the person I am talking to is a direct descendent of mine."

"Genma is your direct descendent? Well they always say you can pick your friends but not your relations," chuckled Nabiki as Genma scowled.

"What is this about a palace?" asked Ling-Ling eagerly.

Parvati got a bemused expression on her face, "Seems there is a palace in the same location as the one in this city. Pendragon Oni here said that was the one place in the little city there where she knew where everything was. Obviously she lived there but as ruler or servant who knows."

Genma looked Pendragon Oni up and down, "What is that you are wearing?"

"The remains of my last friend. The only clothes I knew were mine were in horrid shape and Mer-chan knew he was dying. So he willed me his skin so I could make some new clothing." Oni looked down "Obviously I was not a leather worker but I did the best with the instructions he left me."

Genma snorted, "And the sword. Do you actually know how to use it or was that another gift you don't know anything about?"

Oni's face darkened and before anyone could even move Genma was standing in his underwear staring at the point of Excalibur. "Given that I just cut your clothes off without touching your skin I trust that answers that question?"

Akane stared open mouthed as what she had seen or rather hadn't seen, "I couldn't see her move. Is that was a true expert in Kendo can do?"

Genma nervously looked at the sword in front of him and shook his head, "No, Kendo is a sport, unworthy of a warrior martial artist as it is largely useless in combat. This is Kunjutsu, the warrior style from which Kendo is derived."

Oni's expression relaxed along with her sword, "So you are saying I was a warrior?"

Genma shook his head, "No what I am saying is that you have the skill of a Kunjutsu Grandmaster. In other words you are eight or higher Dan in that martial art."

"Sure you're not exaggerating Pops?" asked Ranma.

Genma smirked "Ke Lun, could you follow the path of the blade?"

Ke Lun frowned with a sharp edge in her voice, "No I could not and you know fully well why."

"Sanjiyan Unkara reflexes are one thing but one can judge skill by stance." Genma gestured to Pendragon Oni "This is not the stance of a first Dan boosted by Sanjiyan Unkara abilities. It rather is the stance of an eighth Dan whose abilities have been further enhanced by the fact she is a Kami."

Pai mentally clapped her hands together with glee, 'Pai have another Sensei. Now Pai become even better Wu.' Parvati frowned slightly. 'That all well and good Pai but not all of us are martial arts sponges like you and Ranma. Especially when it comes trying to get the hang of doing magic with martial arts.'

"And this information is useful how?" fumed Akane as Oni resheethed her sword.

"I get it. Not many Japanese Kami are portrayed that skilled with a blade." Nabiki said in a mocking tone "So instead of thousands we have a couple of hundred. Nice way to kill a couple of decades if any of us get bored."

Genma scowled again, but Ke Lun cleared her throat, "It may be simpler than that Nabiki but I think we should get back to the important matter that this dojo and house cannot handle the people already here."

"Well Shampoo certainly can't go home. None of us are much more than white belts in the use of our Sanjiyan Unkara powers and we all need training. Besides" continued Akane as she looked at Ke Lun disapproving, " Cologne's fellow Elders might decide to go off and do something really idiotic."

Ke Lun nodded solemnly "Yes, that is why I have decided to set up a restaurant specializing in ramen. It will take the pressure off this place, allow me to train Sham Pu in human form, and keep an eye on Mu Si."

"You hear that Shampoo my love. We will be together." proclaimed Mu Si as he grabbed who he thought was Sham Pu. Unfortunately for him it was in fact the worst possible person for him to grab, Parvati.

"WHEN WILL YOU LEARN TO KEEP WEARING YOUR GLASSES YOU BLIND IDIOTIC MORTAL?" yelled Parvati as she grabbed Mu Si by the shoulders and kneed him several times in the groin. Parvati then let go of Mu Si who promptly curled up into a ball of agony.

"Wasn't that a little harsh, sis? I mean it's not like he is Kuno you know." said Ranma.

Parvati scowled, "Sham Pu does not want the attentions this baka is giving her and I sure as well do not want them either." pointing to the ball of pain on the ground Parvati continued "Ke Lun just remember to take _that_ with you and make sure it doesn't bother Sham Pu."

Akane narrowed her eyes as Parvati walked to the dojo. "Excuse me." she said as she followed Parvati. Just behind her was Ranma.

Parvati turned as she walked and smiled, "Hello, Akane." her smile fell as she noticed the frown on Akane's face, "Something wrong?"

"I don't know. Perhaps you could tell me. Your emotional swings are getting more and more extreme."

"Akane is right, Parvati." said Ranma "Something is wrong. When I first met you, you had tight control over your emotions. Pops may have been wrong about showing emotions being a sign of weakness but letting them have free reign like this is no good either."

Akane looked at Parvati and sighed, "Becoming Sanjiyan Unkara forced me to take a good look at myself. I did not like what I saw," looking down at the ground Akane continued, "I saw a girl who was ruled by the emotions of pride and anger. If things didn't fit her view she would lash out. I am seeing more of myself in you as time goes on Parvati. What is wrong?"

Parvati sighed with a lost look in her eyes "To be honest it is likely because I never dealt with mortals for any length of time. If Pai got into danger I would come out and deal with it. Then afterward I would retreat back into Pai's mind. I was never out here for days at a time and I just don't know how to interact with mortals."

Ranma nodded, "Not to mention that if remember correctly it is your time of the month. Of course having me and Pops as social role models for the last couple of months on top of everything else didn't help."

Parvati laughed, "Ranma, compared to the way I used to act you two were social grandmasters."

Ranma chuckled. "I think we should do more of this. It seems to do all of us some good."

"Talking instead of training? Perhaps but what do we talk about, Ranma? I mean sure I have been in this world for 300 years but much of that time was spent in countries that didn't change that much compared to the rest of the world."

Akane smiled "It seems you are doing a good job right now."

Parvati laughed, "You're right but you and Ranma are immortal like myself. How do I relate to mortals? You said that Ranma and I should engage in small talk but what would we talk about? He knows next to nothing about things outside martial arts and my knowledge is mainly on countries largely unchanged since the Warring States era here in Japan."

Akane chuckled, "Perhaps that lack of change is an asset rather than a hindrance. Over those 300 years you or rather Pai must have met many interesting people. Why not talk about your experience with them?"

Parvati nodded while Ranma rubbed his chin, "Perhaps what we need to do is open up more. I mean that is what Ranko and I were talking about. How of the four of us Pai has the easiest time dealing with people because her social skills are much better."

Parvati rubbed her head, "Ranma, I couldn't be that happy _all_ the time. To paraphrase what you said to Sham Pu we're supposed to make new friends not send them into diabetic shock."

Ranma chuckled "I agree that like Pops Pai can overdo it but it's not _that_ bad. Besides as I pointed out to Ranko when it comes to dealing with people like Pops she doesn't have enough street smarts while you and I _do_. The point I guess I am trying to make is that we all can learn from each other."

Akane got a somber look on her face, "Learning is the one thing that will likely keep us sane. That and the fact we can shift between human and Sanjiyan Unkara form. I wonder if in some future time the mortals will start building temples in _our_ honor." Akane then giggled, "You imagine what a temple to Nabiki would look like?"

Parvati giggled "It would likely contain wealth that would make Solomon look like a pauper."

Ranma rolled his eyes, "It would better than the priests of my temple. A bunch of egotistical social challenged baka whose only claim to fame would be their fantastic martial arts skills."

Parvati laughed, "Already been done brother. Several times. All the monastic Ryu tended to produce people just like yourself."

Ranma looked at Parvati stunned, "You're kidding right? You're not kidding. Now there is a scary idea; a temple with a whole army of Genma for priests."

Parvati looked at Ranma and started laughing, "Well one would hope they would have a little more sense but given the training and tests the Shaolin students were willing to do I doubt it."

Ranma shook his head "That is messed up, sis."

Parvati nodded and looked at Oni, "Any idea on who she really is?"

"Not really. Kami doesn't have the same meaning as god does." said Ranma, "On a very simplistic level it means anything awe inspiring or powerful. So while a Sanjiyan Unkara or a Wu would fit so would the oni we can summon and a lot of things that are _not_ part of our world."

"Our world. That is what you meant by not having a normal life isn't it?" asked Hotaru as she approached.

"That is what Ranko was telling Ucchan." Ranma waved his hand, "We may live in this world but we are never really a part of it. As the reincarnation of Sanjiyan Unkara and Wu descendants I think the same is true of the Sailor Senshi. I wonder if they realize it. "

"No they don't. None of them knows the burden they have taken up. " said Setsuna her wings covering her like a cloak.

Parvati smiled with a mischievous gleam in her eyes. "Aren't you taking home schooling to a little extreme Meiou-sensei?"

Setsuna winced, "That is worse than Meiou-san." Setsuna smiled and opened her wings. "Time to see if these things are only for show or they actually work." Several flaps later Setsuna found herself a good 20 feet above the ground. 'Not only do they work but they seem to work very well. I think I will use them to go to school tomorrow and see what I can really do.' she thought.

Ranma looked at his father's obvious discomfort at seeing Setsuna take flight "Well Oyaji, still say girls are weak, weepy, little things?"

Genma shrunk a little into himself as he looked around at all the powerful females in the yard. "Ok, I admit that perhaps that I overstated it when I said _all_ girls were week weepy little things." Genma then puffed himself up "but these women are the exception. Most girls _are_ weak weepy little things."

Parvati snickered. "And Oyaji has just demonstrated the feared Saotome technique of shoving one's foot into one's mouth clean up to the knee"

"Knee? I thought for sure it was to the hip," quipped Ranma.

Parvati giggled "This technique is greatly feared mainly because using it tends to result in intense pounding by any skilled female in the area."

"Ironically, my mother was a prime example of a weak weepy girl. Not to mention a total klutz," said a familiar voice.

Setsuna pulled in her wings and landed just a foot from Black Lady, "Hello, Black Lady. Was wondering who was going to show up first. I should have figured that as the time traveling descendent of a reincarnated Sanjiyan Unkara you would be first."

Black Lady narrowed her eyes, "You said that Crystal Tokyo was doomed from the beginning. Did you really mean that?"

Setsuna smiled unaware that the fangs in her mouth made the gesture anything but reassuring "Of course I did. In fact I am going to make sure that Crystal Tokyo is not this world's future."

"No, the future of Crystal Tokyo will be assured despite your efforts, demon." said a voice.

Setsuna looked up and saw Sailor Uranus and Neptune on the house's roof. "I was wondering when you two Machiavellian messes were going to show up."

"They are not the only ones to fight you, demon. I don't know where Prince Demando found you but his plan to prevent the creation of Crystal Tokyo will fail." said an all too familiar voice.

Setsuna frowned. She had been afraid of something like this ever since she had learned time branched like a tree. Looking up to the source of the voice on the dojo roof she saw Sailor Pluto. "Looks like Sailor Peabrain figured out she _could_ leave the Time Gates. Aren't you a little out of place or rather _time_ here, Sailor Pluto?"

Black Lady looked between Sailor Pluto on the dojo roof and Setsuna in front of her "What in the world?"

"Prince Demando's mad plan ends here," exclaimed Sailor Pluto.

Setsuna snickered evilly, "You three baka have no idea on who you're fighting this time do you? Well let me show you." pulling out a henshin stick Setsuna yelled "Pluto planet power, make up!"

Three Sailor Senshi stood in total disbelief at the transformation. Sailor Pluto was the first to find her voice. "This is impossible. You can't be the Sailor Pluto of _this_ time."

Setsuna growled as she summoned the Time Staff. "Do not call _me_ Sailor Pluto. Sailor Pluto was, is, and will be a narrow minded idiot who blunders along despite all her power. You can call me Setsuna the Time Guardian."

"The answer is obvious, somehow Black Lady has corrupted the Sailor Pluto of this time," exclaimed Sailor Neptune.

"No one has been corrupted," said Hotaru as she emerged from the dojo.

Sailors Neptune and Uranus both paled as the sight of Sailor Saturn with predictable results "Deep submerge." "World shaking." they yelled.

"Shi-Yao-Chong." yelled Hotaru and the mouths of three Sailor Senshi fell open as the attacks were absorbed by something that looked like a one eyed spider before even reaching Sailor Saturn. "What is wrong with you people?!" yelled Hotaru angrily as she dispelled the creature.

"How? What?" Sailor Pluto was definitely having problems with dealing with what she had just seen.

"What's the matter Sailor Peabrain? Didn't use the Time Gates to find out you would be fighting the magic that created the Silver Millennium?" taunted Setsuna. "Do you have any idea on what it is like to deal with a pompous jerk especially when that pompous jerk is yourself?" yelled Setsuna as she jumped up and swung her Time Staff at Sailor Pluto.

Setsuna had only meant to scare her alternate self but she didn't realize just how powerful and fast her demon form was especially in her transformed state. Instead of dodging like Setsuna expected Sailor Pluto caught the full force of the blow in the stomach. The sickening sound of ribs being broken filled the air as Sailor Pluto collapsed coughing up blood. Setsuna immediately dispelled the Time Staff and jumped down to the ground catching her other self in her arms. "Help me. I didn't mean to hurt her. Help me." Setsuna said in near hysterics.

Ku Lun hopped over and felt Sailor Pluto's chest and shook her head. "Her injuries are too intense. There is nothing to be done but to make her last moments as comfortable as possible."

"What?" exclaimed Akane "I think you have forgotten about all the healing power we have."

"No I have not. The injuries are too extensive for Tei-Chin-Chii-Chii-Chong to do any good."

Oni looked at the women in obvious pain and walked over unbuckling her sword. "Perhaps I can help. Mer-Chan said the scabbard could heal even mortal wounds." Buckling the scabbard on to Sailor Pluto Oni smiled as the woman's breathing got stronger and she stopped coughing up blood.

Ku Lun blinked as she reexamined Sailor Pluto "Her injuries... They are totally healed."

Oni's smile broadened as she removed the scabbard from Sailor Pluto and put it back on. "Just as Mer-chan said."

Nabiki nodded "And that is why the scabbard is worth 10 of the sword, Akane."

Oni straightened up and looked at Sailors Uranus and Neptune. "I think that there has been enough violence here today." Oni then drew her sword "But if you still feel that you need to spill some more blood Excalibur and I can sure accommodate you."

"Excalibur? The sword of King Arthur?" stammered Sailor Neptune.

"What else would Pendragon Oni wield. Or don't you know King Arthur's full name was Pendragon Arthur?" chirped Nabiki.

Sailor Uranus looked at the woman and around the yard. Pulling Neptune to her side she whispered into her ear "If we go in there attacking blindly Pluto could be hurt again, besides there is too much here for us to fight alone. Furthermore if that really is Excalibur and she is as that girl implies a descendent of King Arthur then she at least cannot be evil."

Neptune shook her head "How did you get Excalibur?" she yelled.

"Mer-chan rather Merlin gave it to me."

Pluto struggled to her feet. "Perhaps we were hasty in our judgment."

Setsuna's relief that her otherself had been prevented from dying quickly turned to anger again. "Think so? Newflash Sailor Peabrain. I _know_ so." Setsuna frowned "I intended to frighten you with that attack not kill you, but it shows what happens when you blindly attack without planning." Setsuna then smirked "Though planning has never been any of the Sailor Senshi's strong points has it?"

Sailor Pluto scowled and teleported away. Setsuna looked up at Sailors Uranus and Neptune "I didn't wake you two up early so you could attack our _allies_. Despite Mistress 9 being eliminated Pharaoh 90 is likely still trying to bring the silence to this world. So why don't you two stop being Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum and do something useful?"

Sailor Uranus bristled but Neptune held her back. "What is with you? You are supposed to be _helping_ us not hindering us."

Setsuna snorted in disgust, "I looked at the timeline Black Lady came from. My counterpart? Sailor Pluto's idea of help was to run around giving mysterious advice like some walking Chinese fortune cookie. _That_ kind of help you do not need. Small wonder Black Lady's future is such a mess." Setsuna turned to Black Lady, "That said there is nothing you, Prince Demando or anyone else can do to prevent your world from existing. You cannot change history."

Black Lady frowned "How can you say that? I know that none of this happened in our past so history is being changed."

Setsuna laughed "You sound like I use to think. Time is not a single thread going from the past to the future; it is like an ever branching tree."

Genma nodded "As you said before it is like coming to a fork in the road. Taking the right path doesn't eliminate the left path's existence." Genma furrowed his brow "As I understand it you come from the end of the left path and have come back to the fork to take the right path. But the left path still exists."

Neptune and Uranus went "Huh?" while Black lady had her finger to her check deep in thought. "So you are saying the reason we cannot change history is that we are no longer in _our_ past?"

Genma frowned, "Something like that. Though I freely admit that I don't have a full grasp of the concept but it is knowledge and knowledge is a powerful weapon one you figure out how to use it."

Parvati and Ranma blinked "What do you know father actually has been paying attention." they said together. They looked at each other and laughed.

Genma frowned as he tried expressing himself, "From what I understand this Crystal Tokyo was built with the best intentions but it was built on flawed beliefs. Those beliefs resulted in bad results."

Ranma nodded his head in agreement. "You cannot eliminate evil by purging people of it for the simple reason is you cannot have light without darkness. Pops taught me to suppress the female aspects of my being because he thought they were weak." Ranma's eyes narrowed "My sister Ranko is anything but weak. I realize now that the aspects my father saw as weak were in fact strong in different way. I guess what I am trying to get at is who decides on what aspect of a person is bad or for that matter evil?"

Sailors Neptune and Uranus looked at each other troubled by what they were hearing. Setsuna looked at the two Senshi her eyes as hard as flint "Crystal Tokyo is like Plato's Republic. At first glance it is an Utopia but when you really look at it well there are things very troubling about it. We can do better and in fact I say it is our duty to the Silver Millennium to do better. Or would you prefer to ignore me simply because I have the form of a demon?"

Sailors Neptune and Uranus again looked at each other. Things were definitely out of control and they both realized that the best they could do right now was fall back, find Pluto and between the three of them figure out what to do next. They both jumped off the roof and disappeared into the distance.

Setsuna let out a sigh "Wish I could say that is going to be the end of that but from what I saw in the other timeline those three are going to be a royal pain." Setsuna glanced at Black Lady "Black Lady, I would like some input on exactly what we are going to replace Crystal Tokyo with and the Black Moon Family has the best knowledge of what was wrong."

Black Lady looked at Setsuna "You are not acting at all like I expected. You are actually trying to help us. None of this is going like Wiseman said it would."

Setsuna looked at Black Lady puzzled. "Mind telling me more about this Wiseman?"

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By the time Black Lady was done Setsuna knew they had another problem on their hands.

"From what you are telling me this Wiseman appears to be a power crazed loony who is using your Black Moon Family for his own agenda. This nonsense needs to stop. I going to try and get you and the Sailor Senshi together this weekend and hopefully sort this mess out rather than let your two groups continue to try and pound each other heads in." Setsuna looked around her. "This will be the meeting place as it is the best defended place in the whole city. I know the three Outer Sailor Stooges are not going to give up on Crystal Tokyo and we are going to need defense in case they show up to attack during the meeting."

Black Lady nodded and in a flash of energy disappeared.

Nabiki looked at Setsuna "You sure that is a good idea? I know we have a lot of power concentrated here but given what I have heard about the Sailor Senshi I don't want my home to be ground zero for a free for all battle."

Setsuna smirked at Nabiki, "I thought you liked that kind of thing. I mean why else would you send invitations to Ranma's and Akane's wedding to everybody in the other timeline. Anyone with any sense would have known the results would have been the mayhem that resulted."

Nabiki scowled at Setsuna "I don't know why I did that in that other reality but I am _not_ that person in this reality. If Ranma and Akane want to marry in this world they have my full support."

Akane and Ranma looked at each other. Ranma then looked at Setsuna his face firm, "Nabiki is right this is not the world you used to get information on our future foes from. We can't be judged on what we did in that world." Ranma glanced as Akane, "I like the tomboy as a friend but I am not sure about as a wife." Akane grimaced at the tomboy comment but let it slide as something dawned on her, "You said in the other world Ranma killed someone to save someone he loved."

Setsuna nodded "I see you figured it out. The person was your counterpart in that other world." Setsuna smiled "Worlds without end, histories without number. What might have been and in other worlds **is**. Something to think about." Setsuna then flapped her wings and flew home.

Soun looked out over his backyard and finally gave up on the idea of ignoring the nightmare would make it go away. Then something occurred to Soun that made the nightmare turn into a dream. For the first time since his wife had died Soun had a true purpose and goal.

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Morning found Ranko and Pai in unusually high spirits and were talking about things other than martial arts. Evidently their differences with Ranma and Parvati had been smoothed over. Interestingly Soun was in his Sanjiyan Unkara form while Genma was trying to raid Ranko's plate while reading the Sazan Ryu manual at the same time. Akane and Nabiki were talking about how to spend the first century after they finished school. Hotaru and Oni talked about their skills and knowledge. Hotaru found it interesting that Oni knew flower arranging--few modern Japanese women had that skill.

Ke Lun set back looking at Mu Si who was trying to reason with a potted plant and shook her head. She had already selected a site for the restaurant and would purchase it today. It would get some people out of the vastly overloaded house and dojo and it would allow her to keep on eye on the love sick idiot Mu Si. Ke Lun understood that her relationship with her great grand daughter was like that of Ranma and Parvati; in one area Sham Pu was the sensei and she the student in the other the roles were reversed. It wasn't going to be easy but then nothing ever worth doing was.

Lee Ling-Ling was also thinking about the future. She had only looked at belief in the supernatural as a way to make some money but now she was in the middle of positive proof the supernatural existed. If simple belief was enough to rake in the money then this was the mother lode. Of course it would mean moving the Yogekisha Company from Hong Kong to the Nerima district of Tokyo but that seemed to be a small cost to the wealth that would soon pour in.

After breakfast Akane, Nabiki, Ranko, Pai, and Hotaru went to school followed by Oni. The remnants of the Dating Horde greeted them but Akane opened her third eye and most of them backed off at seeing that. Akane signed as it looked like a few stubborn ones wanted to try anyhow. From what she has seen last night she knew she was going to have to hold back less she accidentally kill some of these idiots. She smiled wickedly as she remembered Parvati's attack. "It looks like you guys are a little over dressed. Cha-Lieh-Chong revised" Akane then laughed as the now near naked would be daters ran off to get something to wear.

"I the Blue Thunder will free the women enslaved by the vile sorcerer Saotome."

Akane smile broadened as a really wicked idea occurred to her. But before she could act on it Kuno noticed Oni.

"And who is this vision that approaches the Blue Thunder?"

"I am Pendragon Oni and who are you?"

"I am Kuno the Blue Thunder the defender of all fair beauty enslaved by the vile Sorcerer Saotome Ranma." Kuno then looked at the ill made armor Oni wore. "What is that you are wearing?"

"This is armor I made myself from the remains of the white dragon Merlin."

Kuno backed up with an expression of disgust on his face. "I should have known that the vile sorcerer would associate with Burakumin."

Pendragon Oni eyes flashed anger and suddenly Kuno was in his underwear holding the stump of a bokken in his hands. "What did you say?" hissed Oni as she resheathed her sword.

"I the Blue Thunder will prevent the vile sorcerer Saotome from corrupting the souls of my urk." Kuno found himself grabbed by the throat by a woman generating an intense red battle aura.

"How DARE you! What gives you or any mortal the right to judge some one on what profession they or their ancestors did or may have done? I did what I did to survive as I had no memory of who I was and still don't but do not presume that means you can judge me or your fellow mortals for that matter."

Kuno by now was turning a nice shade of blue as Oni pushed him away. "And while we're on the subject my relation Ranma is not a vile sorcerer." Kuno was too busy gasping for air to make any comments.

"Auntie Am-chan" exclaimed a voice and Oni found herself in a bear hug by a handsome man. "I thought whatever happened to the other Kami happened to you as well when I couldn't find you, I am so grad I was wrong."

Pulling herself out of the hug Oni looked at the man questioningly, "And you are?"

The handsome man looked stunned "Am-chan don't you recognize me? It's I, your nephew Okuninushi."

Akane gasped in realization while Oni simply shook her head, "I'm sorry my dear young man but I do not recognize you." Oni chuckled, "Do not feel offended I have not recognized myself in the mirror for over 100 years."

"Okuninushi? The ruler of Meido?" asked Akane nervously.

The man smiled and turning to face Akane ever so slightly bowing "At your service my dear..."

"Tendo Akane." as she bowed deeply.

"Akane? What is with the deep bow? Just who is this guy?" fumed Pendragon Oni.

Nabiki paled as she realized something. "Kami-Sama." she whispered.

"Would somebody please tell me what is going on?" said Pai whose thoughts were echoing Parvati's

"Am-chan. That is short for Amaterasu isn't it?" asked Nabiki.

The man's smile got bigger as he addressed Nabiki, "Exactly."

"Ok, are we going to play 20 questions or is somebody going to tell me just who… Wait a minute did you say _Amaterasu_, as in the supreme goddess of Japan?" asked Oni blinking her eyes.

Okuninushi's smile changed to a look of total confusion as he turned to face Oni "You are the ruler of the Japanese kami and the ancestor of the Emperor. You are Omikami Amaterasu."

Kuno just stared as Oni laughed until tears were coming down her face. "This is rich. No wonder I knew so much about the palace. Most of my time before Merlin came was spent looking for the ruler who lived in that palace; now I find out that I was that ruler."

"It is impossible. No sorcerer is powerful enough to enslave Amaterasu herself," stammered Kuno.

"What is this about you being enslaved Am-chan?" asked a scowling Okuninushi.

Oni stopped laughing for a second looked at Kuno who was in total a state of shock and started laughing again. "Don't pay attention to the school idiot. He thinks my descendent Ranma is a vile sorcerer enslaving every female that tickles his fancy and he called me Burakumin to my face. The look on his face as he realized just how he blundered is hysterical." finished Oni as she fell down holding her sides as she kept laughing.

Okuninushi by contrast was in a total state of confusion. Such an insult to his aunt would have normally had her moping around for months if not years. Of course normal also met that Hachiman would have come to kill the offending insulter. As it was Hachiman was nowhere to be seen and his aunt was rolling on the ground laughing her head off. So naturally his mouth fell open in shock.

Oni finally settled down and pulled herself off the ground. "You maybe an annoying baka Kuno but you are at least a funny annoying baka." the mirth in her eyes disappeared in a flash and Kuno found the point of Excalibur at his throat. "A friendly warning though. Don't be so quick to judge as the results could be fatal next time. Understand?"

Kuno dumbly nodded and Oni sheathed her sword in a very smooth motion. Smiling she turned to Okuninushi and gently closed his mouth. "You will get your tongue sunburned if you leave your mouth open like that, nephew." Faced with his aunt behaving so differently from what he was used to Okuninushi suffered information overload and for the first time he could remember the world suddenly turned black.

Oni looked down at her nephew, "He appears to have fainted."

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	14. Chap 14 Identities

Chap 14 Identities

Ranma 1/2 is the creation of Rumiko Takahashi, 3x3 eyes (Sazan Eyes) is the creation of Yuzo Takada, Sailor Moon is the creation of Naoko Takeuchi. All are used without permission. This fan-fiction isn't intended for commercial use but is rather a tribute to Ranma 1/2, 3x3 Eyes, and Sailor Moon.

Oni grabbed Okuminushi, the ruler of Meido and slinging him over her shoulder followed Ranko and company to their homeroom class room were she sat her nephew in a chair and proceeded to shake him awake.

"Come on, Okuminushi, wake up. You're the first person to know who I really am and I need more than just the name Omikami Amaterasu and the stories the moral humans tell."

The teacher in the room had been ignoring the new arrivals as more friends of the 'Divine Demons' as the staff called the Sanjiyan Unkara but took acute interest when he heard _those_ names.

Okuninushi opened his eyes "Amaterasu? What in the spirit world happened to you?"

Oni smiled "Very simple, I lost my memory. I have been wondering around both this world and a ghost world with no idea of my identity for over a century."

"Then you don't know what happened to your fellow kami. The only ones I have been able to find are the Shichi Fukujin and they had no idea that anything had happened and that was some 50 years ago. No surprise there as they prefer to live in this realm rather than yours or mine."

Okuninushi pushed himself out of the chair he was in and looked at what Amaterasu. "What are you wearing?"

Oni smiled sadly "Leather armor. The white dragon Merlin knew that despite my best efforts he was dying and he noticed that my kamono was little more than a rag held together by decades of sewing repairs. He willed me his hide and wrote down the process on how to make leather armor out of it." Oni looked down "It was enough to properly cure it but not enough to make good armor. I just didn't have that kind of skill."

Okuninushi smiled gently "Without your memories you didn't know what clothes were yours and so kept repairing the only clothes you knew to be yours." he then frowned "There would be some narrow mined baka that would say working leather would make you unclean."

Oni bristled "I met those over the years including the one today; the first was quite enough thank you. Perhaps Omikami Amaterasu cared about such things but as Pendragon Oni I could care less. A person should be judged on their own merits not those of a long dead ancestor." Oni then got a very sinister smile "Besides if working leather has made me unclean then since the Emperor is my decedent wouldn't that make him unclean as well?"

Okuninushi blanched at the remark, "Actually you were about as angry as I had every seen you when the Shogun said that. You told the Shogun that one day the people of Japan would realize how foolish and narrowminded his idea was and they would curse him and his dynasty. You then teleported away and became the most depressing person to be around for the next century. The steel I saw that day is there but not the emotional fragility, you are not the Amaterasu I know."

Oni snorted, "If I was a walking example of Saotome Genma's idea of a woman than I am perhaps better off without Amaterasu's memories." Oni narrowed her eyes "Perhaps that is why I can't remember anything before 120 years ago, Amaterasu ran into something she couldn't handle and so ran away from the world in general."

Okuninushi frowned "You may be right in that. A few insults by my father combined with the fear he might rape you and you hid in a cave threatening to turn the world into a ice block."

Pai nodded her head "Setsuna said something about the last references she found in Oni's world were to someone named Commodore Perry. Perhaps his arrival caused her to face something she didn't want to."

"Commodore Perry's arrival did cause a lot of problems." Nabiki said "He shattered the idea that we Japanese were the most advanced people in the world and were superior to 'barbarians'. His influence led to the revolution that ended Japan's feudal period."

Pai rubbed her chin in thought "Omikami. Sounds almost like Onikami." she muttered out loud.

Okuninushi scowled, "Onikami? What made you think of that?" he said in a harsh tone.

Pai frowned, "Akane wondered if Japanese kami were related to Sanjiyan Unkara. We are also called Divine Demon which could be represented by the term onikami." Oni cocked her head to one side and touched her necklace. "You think I might be related to your people?"

Okuninushi looked at the necklace which glowed a very faint red and frowned. "And just what is her people?" he asked in a harsh tone.

Akane bristled and opened her three eyes. "Don't take that tone with us." she said as her three eyes bored into Okuninushi. "You may be the ruler of the Japanese spirit world but as her necklace shows you owe your very position to the fact you are related to us Sanjiyan Unkara."

Nabiki shifted nervously in her seat. Coughing slightly to break the confrontation between Akane and Okuninushi that seemed on the edge of getting physical she said, "While Akane's method is overly blunt she is right in the respect that we _are_ kami in our own right and as such are deserving of the proper respect."

Okuninushi held his ground and snarled back at Akane, "Perhaps but just because you are kami does not mean that you are equals to the likes of me or my aunt."

Akane smiled sarcastically, "Oh really? And just what would being chosen by Parvati, one of the Hindu gods, to be part of their pantheon make us if not your equals?"

Okuninushi's expression changed immediately from anger to surprise. "Parvati? As in wife of Siva, Parvati?"

"Actually sister Parvati was the fiancé of Siva. He went nuts and it took the lives of everyone but Pai and sister Parvati to put him in a dreamless sleep." commented Pai in an unusually somber tone.

Okuninushi blinked his eyes in astonishment. "You mean your sister is trying to rebuild her pantheon and has chosen you people to start with?"

"Her pantheon? What do you mean _her_ pantheon?" asked a familiar but tired voice from the door. Everyone turned to see Kuno still in his underwear, looking a little dazed though there seemed to be a loss look in his eyes.

Okuninushi frowned as he looked at the kendoist "Parvati is one of the major powers of the Hindu kami. I would dare say that in many regards she is the equal of my aunt in terms of authority."

Kuno seemed to try and digest this, "Then when I called you goddesses I was actually being literal rather than figurative."

Ranko shook her head, "No, Kuno. I will acknowledge us being kami due to our immortality, eternal youth, and power. And because of this you mortals _regard_ us as gods but as far as us actually _being_ gods is concerned... Well that simply is not the case."

Oni looked down at at her necklace nervously fingering it as she talked to Ranko causing it to glow blue. "Does that mean that the idea that I am the embodiment of the sun was nothing more than a self delusion?"

Nabiki tapped her cheek in thought, "I doubt it. We already know that Sanjiyan Unkara normally live in another reality separate from this one. Perhaps in one of those other worlds you really do have all the power we attribute to you." Nabiki then shrugged, "But how much of that power is available in _this_ world. Now that question I have no answer for you any more than I can tell you why you lost your memory."

Kuno frowned as the tried to reason through what he had heard. Unfortunately the result was typical Kuno. "Then if your powers are limited here on the Earth plane then the vile sorcerer Saotome Ranma could imprison you."

Ranko put her head in her hands. "Great just when I thought we were finally getting through to the True Blunder."

Kuno then took a dramatic stance "Never fear I the great Blue Thunder will find a way to release you kami form the clutches of the vile sorcerer Saotome Ranma." Kuno then looked down. "But first the great Blue Thunder needs to get some new clothes." Kuno said as he dashed off.

Okuninushi and Oni stared where Kuno had stood. Oni finally spoke, "Is that normal?"

Nabiki smiled. "For Kuno? No." noticing that Oni sighed in relief Nabiki decided to have a little fun. "If he had been behaving normally he would have proclaimed that Oni was heads over heals in love with him but would not admit it so he would have to defeat her in combat to take her on a date."

Okuninushi and Oni both turned and looked at Nabiki and said in unison "You have got to be kidding!"

Ranko nervously laughed. "Nope she is not kidding. Fact is he had the majority of the male population of this school trying to defeat Akane here for a date. Despite us arriving early and her becoming Sanjiyan Unkara a few still try."

Akane grumbled, "I have got to start coming to school in my human form so I can punch the baka's lights out without fear of accidentally killing them."

Ranko smiled evilly "True but just pounding them doesn't seem to work. Perhaps a few more Flying Numb Nuts is in order. It seems to be what they're thinking with any how."

Nabiki snickered "Just what this school needs; a bunch of males that walk funny."

Okuninushi shuttered as Oni chuckled "Can I help?" This was definitely _not_ his aunt. Amaterasu had been greeted with something she couldn't handle and instead of going catatonic she had simply hid her personal memories from herself. In the resulting void a new personality had formed; an aggressive assertive person that called itself Pendragon Oni. It had taken nearly all the major kami to get his aunt out of the last cave she ran into but now including himself there were only eight kami and he had not seen the Seven Lucky Gods in nearly 50 years. Okuninushi went deep into thought on how to get his aunt out of her mental cave and what to do about the new personality as the teacher started class desperately trying to ignore that his class room had effectively become 'heaven on earth'.

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Gym was the one course Ranko and Ranma equally enjoyed but it was also the one where they had the most problems. There were countless efforts at splashing Ranma during his week and Ranko's first week had been a trial as she had to convince the other girls that she and Ranma were two different people. Not all believed it but with people like Kuno running around she understood their reluctance. Weird was normal in this school as demonstrated by the fact Setsuna had shown up in demon form and was conducting class in it with few problems.

"Hello, Ranko." said Ukyo in a friendly voice.

Ranko turned and smiled at her brother's childhood friend, "Hi Ucchan." looking over at a few staring girls Ranko frowned, "They still seem to think that Ranma is some how using me to peek."

Ukyo smiled, "Well you did say that you and he do share everything."

Ranko laughed, "Come on. Pops told my brother so little about girls that without Sham Pu's and Parvati's input he would have needed a manual to know what to do on his honeymoon. Besides he still freaks a little during my period."

Several girls in the locker room giggled at that Ranko snickered, "Besides the best way I know to beat him is to act like I want to do _it_ with him. Scares him nearly as bad as a ccccat."

"It? You mean _it_ it?" asked Ukyo appalled.

"Of course, not that I would really do it but it is fun to see brother's reaction. Besides I only do that when he goes off and does something really baka." Ranko's eyes hardened "Like mess around with my emotions so he can beat me."

'Baka is as baka does.' quipped Ranma mentally.

Ranko's expression fell, "Ok, Ranma, so it isn't the smartest move I ever came up with. But it works and it sure is a lot safer than some of the training Pops came up with."

'Ok, I grant you that.'

Ukyo shook her head, "Good grief."

Ranko smiled, "Ucchan, what do you think of the idea we came up with regarding Pop's idiocy."

Ukyo frowned, "I would have preferred to be Ranchan's wife but you say he regards me more like a sister. I guess it is the best way to deal with the mess but will your father approve of the idea?"

Ranko smirked "Don't worry about panda for brains. If he has learned one thing is that his 'girls are weak weepy little things' garbage doesn't apply to me."

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Setsuna had been so enthralled by trying out her demon form that she had forgotten to get hot water for the start of class. Now on her lunch period she was troubled by with the ease the classes had accepted her appearance; it had been fortunate that the attacks by the various enemies of the Sailor Senshi had not been here in Nerima. If they had been it would have been a long time before anyone would have known something was wrong.

Setsuna frowned as she focused on the fact that the Ningen No Zou was going to be a major trouble magnet with everybody from the Doom Tree on going to be after the thing. Benares, Kaiyanwang's Wu, was another concern as his methodology was totally different from any other foe Setsuna was aware of. In the other timeline he had let Pai live as a human for nearly four years; by contrast the other foes Pai, Ranma, and the Sailor Senshi faced in the other histories wanted _immediate_ results. In a real way Benares was like a twisted mirror image of herself--an immortal patiently striving toward a goal. Only his goal was the reawakening Siva, a being who would make the likes of Stalin and Mao look like pikers by comparison.

"How can you support Black Lady?" hissed a familiar voice.

Setsuna sighed. She knew that this confrontation was coming but she had hoped that it would be later. "You certainly have a one track mind. Must be the result of thinking time is like string rather than a tree." Setsuna stared at Sailor Pluto her mouth a thin line, "I support Black Lady because she is right. Your Crystal Tokyo is a mistake. A horrible well meant but totally misguided mistake."

Sailor Pluto hand tightened on her staff to the point Setsuna saw the knuckles turn white. Setsuna smiled at that reaction. "One thing Ranma figured out in the other timeline is an angry opponent is a sloppy opponent. Since we are different versions of the same person I know just which emotional buttons to push to get you mad." Sailor Pluto's face was now a mask of frustration and anger. "Forget about the Death Scream. Shi-Yao-Chong will be as effective at shutting it down as it was with the attacks of Sailors Uranus and Neptune." Sailor Pluto yelled in frustration as she tried to hit Setsuna with her Time Staff. Setsuna smirked as she effortlessly caught the Time Staff. "Shi-Yao-Chong."

The result was immediate as Sailor Pluto depowered her jaw opening in surprise as the creature fell off the staff as if drunk. Setsuna smiled "Appears the Shi-Yao-Chong not only can feed on our magical attacks but our magical transformations as well. At least now you cannot do any damage." Setsuna let Sailor Pluto pull the Time Staff from her hand as she dismissed the Shi-Yao-Chong. Sailor Pluto furrowed her brow as she concentrated and finally vanished. Setsuna narrowed her eyes and tried to summon the Time Staff even though she had not powered up. When it appeared she nodded. 'The Time Staff is part of my mother's power and not part of my Sailor Pluto transformation.' she thought to herself. 'That could come in handy, in the future.'

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Pendragon Oni was not happy. She preferred to be treated as an equal not as someone superior and the deep bows she had been getting were starting to wear on her nerves. She wanted to learn more about martial arts but the reactions she was getting made the chances of learning from someone other than Ranko and Pai somewhere just above nil. On top of it all her nephew was trying to figure out how to bring back Amaterasu. In disgust Oni had returned to the Tendo Dojo and saw Soun and Genma looking over the Sazan Ryu manual. "Saotome Genma, I would like you to teach me your Ryu."

Genma looked up and nodded, "You want to broaden your skills."

Oni nodded "That and I found out that originally I was a walking example of a 'weak, weepy, little thing.'" Oni narrowed her eyes, "There is no way I am going back to _that_."

Genma nodded "Let's see how good you are without a weapon." he said getting into a fighting stance.

Meanwhile in Juuban district Usagi was nervously fiddling with her hensen stick. 'Were _any_ of the Sailor Senshi of the Moon Kingdom even human?' she thought. 'What was I in my previous life? Sanjiyan Unkara or Wu? What would happen if I called on either of those powers, now?' Usagi was snapped out of her self questioning by a daimon attacking the school trying to gather pure heart crystals. Gripping her hensen stick Usagi realized that if she transformed now everyone in the room would know who Sailor Moon was but if she didn't then people would be hurt perhaps even killed. In desperation Usagi raised her hensen stick and called out "Sanjiyan Unkara power make up!" To her relief a transformation _did_ occur but not into the outfit she wore as Sailor Moon. Instead the outfit consisted of a richly detailed robe not too dissimilar to those worn by the Emperors of China, on her head was an equally rich headdress lined with pearls. Usagi shook her head as a whole host of new attacks and defenses filled it as she ran outside.

The outside of the school was total chaos as the daimon was looking for the best subjects to pull heart crystals from. Usagi frowned as she recognized Sailors Neptune and Uranus in the distance. Hopefully she could dispatch this daimon before those two could cover the 10 blocks between them and the school. 10 blocks?! Since when could she see that far this clearly? Never mind dispatch the daimon then deal with the two overzealous Sailor Senshi. "For attacking innocent children trying to improve themselves in the name of the Sanjiyan Unkara I shall punish you."

The daimon promptly shot an energy beam at Usagi. Instead of her normal reaction of dodging the attack Usagi found herself gesturing. "Shi-Yao-Chong." she said and saw a strange looking one eyed octopus like creature formed between her and the daimon. Her eyes widened in surprise as the bug absorbed the daimon's attack and then ran straight to the daimon. 'Ok _that_ is definitely useful." she thought. Pointing at the daimon she said "Kuan-Yaa."

Sailors Uranus and Neptune arrived in time to see Usagi literally blow the head off the daimon, it return to its natural state of a motorcycle, and the Shi-Yao-Chong on it blow up from too much magical energy. They looked at Usagi who simply waved at them and then at each other trying to figure out how to deal with this development. Usagi pouted at the two Sailor Scout's distrust; at least they weren't attacking her. But from what she had seen before anything they saw as a threat became a potential target.

"Well I must say you look less ridiculous in _that_ get up than you did in the sailor fuku, mother." said a voice just behind her.

"Hello, Black Lady." said Usagi in a calm voice turning to face her daughter.

The reaction of Sailors Uranus and Neptune on the appearance of Black Lady was a replay of their reaction of Sailor Saturn. "Deep submerge." "World shaking." they yelled.

The result was also a replay of their conflict with Sailor Saturn. "Shi-Yao-Chong." said Usagi without even turning to face the two Sailor Senshi. "Do you two mind? I am trying to have some quality time with my daughter here and its kind of hard with you two attacking her." Sailors Uranus and Neptune watched as their attacks again were absorbed before even getting close to their intended target. They both left the school grounds to find Pluto and try to come up with another idea.

Usagi gestured to a big tree where she sat down motioning for Black Lady to join her. Black Lady cautiously sat down next to her mother. "If they are that hot headed in your time no wonder the Black Moon Family doesn't like us much."

Black Lady frowned "They died in the Great Disaster that lead to my timeline. We didn't have to deal with them."

Usagi sighed, "What was up with my mother in thinking _that_ kind of behavior was the proper way to deal with a possible threat?"

Black Lady held back a stinging retort curious in the way her mother was handling the situation. "Well you are certainly more open mined then the Usagi I know. What is with that outfit?"

Usagi sadly smiled, "I was needed to defeat this daimon but to do so I needed to transform in front of my classmates. I desperately grabbed into the idea of calling on the power of the Moon Kingdom's founders, the Sanjiyan Unkara." Usagi frowned as she furrowed and unfurrowed her brow.

Black Lady looked at her mother's antics with amusement. "Just _what_ are you doing making all those funny faces?"

"I am seeing if I have a third eye I can open. I guess that the transformation only gave me part of the powers of my past life rather than turning me into a Sanjiyan Unkara." she looked down at her outfit and smiled "At least this outfit is less revealing then the Sailor Scout one."

Black Lady sweatdropped at her mother's comment about not changing into a Sanjiyan Unkara. "Mother, what do you know of the Sanjiyan Unkara?"

"Not much other than they were the founders of the Moon Kingdom and their magics are responsible for all our powers." Usagi cocked her head to the side "I wonder, does being a reincarnated Sanjiyan Unkara make me human or Sanjiyan?"

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Ryoga scowled as he dealt with Hotaru's solution to him wanting to go attend his schedule with out her holding his hand all the time. Perhaps it was better be in his Hong-Nyang form than have a human sized Fey-Oh as a guide. Worse the angrier and more depressed he got the more the blasted thing liked him and now it was cooing and chirping all the way to the bathroom.

'Perhaps a splash of cold water would help' he thought turning on the faucet. The moment the cold water touched him he looked at the Hong-Nyang in the mirror. Unfortunately Ryoga had forgotten that intense anger could trigger his transformation into Ran-Pao-Pao and so was soon looking at the befuddled expression of a very female seven foot giant with four arms. Ryoga sighed, his clothes never lasted _this_ transformation and left very little to the imagination not to mention little of him decent. 'Could have been worse I guess. I could have fallen into a pool of drowned pig or something and be in constant fear of winding up in someone's stew pot.'

Ryoga remembered the first time he had changed into his Ran-Pao-Pao form in a cold river somewhere in China. The very female nature of what he saw had nearly caused him to have a nose bleed and pass out until he realized it was _his_ reflection. It had helped in dealing with women to some degree as simple seeing one in a swimsuit didn't cause him to pass out anymore. Another thing that Ryoga also liked about both his Ran-Pao-Pao and Hong-Nyang forms was he _never_ got lost in them. The main problem was his Hong-Nyang looked like a seven year old girl and the Ran-Pao-Pao one had gotten him in several problems in both China and Japan.

'Oh well I better change back and put on my...' Ryoga frowned "Put on your _what_ baka? You don't have any clothes to put on once you go back to warm water form." Ryoga signed to himself, "Let's see, nearly everybody you currently live with is either Sanjiyan Unkara or Wu, oni are summoned on nearly a daily basis and your teacher comes to school in her demon form, and the most reaction the school puts forth is 'OK _that_ is different'. So going back in Ran-Pao-Pao form won't be a problem," said Ryoga aloud as he returned to class.

Sadly Ryoga was missing one vital piece of information in his logic which is why nearly the entire male part of his class either had silly grins on their faces for the rest of the day or wound up going to the nurse's office because blood loss. Of course like Ranko Ryoga didn't understand why being basically naked from the waist up was a problem. As none of the teachers wanted to antagonize a seven foot female who looked like she could toss a sumo wrestler around like a flapjack Ryoga kept the nurse's office busy for the rest of the day.

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Ranko, Ukyo, Akane, Nabiki, Hotaru, and Pai were greeted after school by the sight of Ryoga in Ran-Pao-Pao talking with his Fey-Oh guide without a stitch of clothing above the waist.

"Looks like you and Pai aren't the only ones who need some tips on modesty." Nabiki quipped.

"Hey I simply wrung out my shirt. I may have only Ranma's memories to go from by even I know girls are not supposed to run around in public without something on their chests." Ranko scowled, "You are really close to another amorous sister encounter brother. 'You mean something besides their breasts?' indeed."

Akane stopped in midstride, "Ranma said that?"

Ranko smiled wickedly "When it's his week you can be Sanjiyan Unkara for a day and train with him."

Akane returned the smile "I make sure it's a real _learning_ experience."

Pai cocked her head to the side, "I don't understand what the problem is. If males can run around without something above the waist why can't females."

Nabiki sweatdropped as her sister's and Ranko's shark like smiles dropped and stared at Pai.

"Pai we really are going to have to talk about female modesty in industrialized countries." said Ranko.

'Not to mention concepts on family. Pai has gotten some really weird ideas. Likely from hanging around Pops too much.' said Ranma mentally.

Okuninushi walked briskly up to the group. "Have any of you seen my aunt?"

"No, but I imagine she has gone back to the dojo." commented Nabiki.

Okuninushi nodded and continued walking briskly finally breaking into a run.

"Ranma says it may not be a good idea to have him around Oni alone and I think I agree. Come on." Ranko said as she broke into a run followed by the rest of the group.

Okuninushi slowed down in front of the house the familiar sound of laughter from the dojo area allowing the rest to catch up. Smiling he walked around to the back to the dojo but stopped the moment he could see into the back yard his smile changing to an expression of stunned shock.

"Thank for not treating me like a china vase" said Oni.

Genma nodded, "My children may call me baka-sama but I _do_ learn. I was wrong that _all_ girls were weak weepy little things and there are definitely women with metal that rivals that of _any_ man." Genma then put his hand on Oni's shoulder and pulled her arm. Ranko had barely heard the sound of a shoulder being snapped back into place when Okuninushi ran across the yard, grabbed Genma by the gi, and slammed him into the house wall.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO MY AUNT?!" Okuninushi yelled in Genma's face.

"You leave my Sensei alone," yelled Oni as she grabbed Okuninushi by the shoulder and followed up with a punch to the stomach. "He is the only person besides Ranko and Pai that doesn't bow horizontal to me nor treat me like I priceless crystal."

Okuninushi stumbled to keep to his feet. "You're not Am-chan!"

"It took you this long to figure _that_ out?" snarled Oni "Furthermore I am not going to let her back out if it means becoming a pathetic weak weepy little excuse for a woman." grabbing Okuninushi by his neck Oni slammed him into the house wall. "I don't care if you are Okuninushi ruler of Meido or that you are my nephew. _I_ am Pendragon Oni and at least I have the backbone befitting one of the bushi class. That is more than that pathetic kami Omikami Amaterrasu could say. She crawled away from the world and left me to wander around a deserted ghost town of a reality for over a century." Oni let Okuninushi go trying to reign in her anger, "Yamato Michinomiya Hirohito faced with the prospect of his country being destroyed behaved with greater bravery. 'We must endure the unendurable.' I believe that with the right tools he would have been able to stop Tojo's mad ambitions though not without a high cost."

Okuninushi shook his head. "And as the Europeans say if wishes were wings pigs would fly. You can never know what might have been."

"Can't we?" asked a shaky but familiar voice.

Everyone turned to be a totally bedraggled Sailor Pluto. "I mean my world my history of 1000 years from now still exists even though _none_ of this happened in my world. Doesn't that mean that all possible histories in someway actually exist independent of each other?"

"Took you a while but you finally got the basic idea." said a tired voice.

"Setsuna? I guess I owe you an apology," said Sailor Pluto as she frowned "Who's your companion." gesturing to the man in a WWII US Army brigadier general's uniform standing beside her counterpart.

"While I cannot see the present or future of _this_ Nerima I can see its past as well as the futures and pasts of other Nerimas. It didn't take a genius to see how the situation between Okuninushi and Oni was going to go given Genma training her. So I decided that this man created by events in a now impossible future could defuse things.

Okuninushi snorted "And just how would bringing General Douglas Macarthur here defuse things?"

"You're not listening very well because you are letting you anger cloud your senses. Setsuna-sama said I was the result of events in a _future_. General Douglas Macarthur died in 1964, which is the past. Besides," continued the man pointing to the lone star on his left shoulder, "I am the wrong rank."

Okuninushi stiffened and his face paled "Your voice. But that is impossible!"

The general nodded "Impossible in _this_ world _this_ history. But a lie about an ancestor led a young man to wish for him to be taken to a time and place where he would be judged on my own merits not on those of his ancestors. In that new time and place he befriended a young kid with an abusive father and taught him and others martial arts. That one action triggered off a whole series of events different and I might add better from your world. Eventually I decided that this young man who had so shaped Europe would be my teacher. You can see the results."

Pendragon fingered her necklace. "So you are from another history?" she asked with one eye on the necklace which glowed as bright a blue as it had with Genma. Pendragon beamed at the general "Look at this Ranko. It means that he is related to me the same way Genma is."

Okuninushi stared slacked jawed looking between Genma and the general, "It can't be. It can't be."

The general smiled removing his hat "But I assure you my world and its history is just as real as this world and its history. Just as assuredly as I am US Army Brigadier General Hirohito Michinomiya Yamato."

At which point Okuninushi fainted for the second time in one day.

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[Author's note: Yamato Hirohito is the formal name of Japan's Emperor who reigned from 1926 to 1989. In keeping with ancient Japanese tradition he has several names: his childhood name was Michinomiya, his name during his reign was Hirohito, and his after death name is Shown. In our history he toured Europe May-October 1921 and to date is Japan's longest reigning Emperor. I should note that General Yamato's perception of Emperor Hirohito echoes those most Japanese had before 1989.

Also the Shichi Fukujin are the basis for the 'seven lucky gods' martial artist Ranma encounters in the first film.


	15. Chap 15 Legacy

Chap 15 Legacy

Ranma 1/2 is the creation of Rumiko Takahashi, 3x3 eyes (Sazan Eyes) is the creation of Yuzo Takada, Sailor Moon is the creation of Naoko Takeuchi. All are used without permission. This fan-fiction isn't intended for commercial use but is rather a tribute to Ranma 1/2, 3x3 Eyes, and Sailor Moon.

From a simple overview of Saotome Genma's handling of his son's life one could assume that he was a greedy and lazy baka with all the brains of a rock. In reality Genma was actually quite smart and had put a lot of hard work into making his son a martial artist though on occasion he did let his stomach do his thinking for him. However food was the _last_ thing on Genma's mind as Brigadier General Hirohito Yamato sipped the tea Kasumi had put out for everyone.

Setsuna had indicated that other histories or alternate timelines as she called existed, but here was real solid proof. Okuninushi had made a comment on bad sake when he woke up and nearly fainted again when he saw General Yamato; Genma had to chuckle at that, he doubted bad sake could have produced anything _this_ bizarre. Everyone else's reaction had been that of calm confusion which didn't surprise Genma as nearly everybody here either turned into something regarded as a Kami, was a Kami, or was an immortal unkillable Wu guardian. The weird and totally bizarre had become so much a part of their lives that simple acceptance was the only rational reaction otherwise they would be reduced to nervous wrecks. Genma noticed that Okuninushi would look at his tea from time to time before sipping it; perhaps the nation master was wishing it was strong sake. As if being slightly drunk would help; it was hard enough to follow this stuff when you were stone cold sober.

"With the few details Ranma gave me I was able to trace his father's family tree. I know that his actual ancestor was a samurai of some notable skill. However his name was very similar to a totally unrelated grave digger in a nearby village." General Yamato sipped his tea again, "Since the grave digger was unrelated the _only_ way he could have been confused with the samurai was that someone was looking for such a similarity."

"Who would do such a thing to my Ram-chan?" fumed Ukyo.

The general paused in thought, "I have asked myself that very same question for well over 40 years. While Kuno may have dropped the leaflets I felt from Ranma's description he was too delusional to come up with such an elaborate plan on his own. Besides however warped he had made it he still held to Bushido, so I reasoned that Kuno's investigator had been bribed."

"Did you figure out who did such a horrid thing?" asked Pai in cold voice similar to Parvati's.

The general nodded "By process of elimination I figured out who most likely did it. I felt it had to be someone who was regularly in Ranma's life. This eliminated one time or occasional foes like the Gambling King or Tero. While Ranma left a lot of details of his encounters with Ryoga out I knew with his sense of direction he couldn't have found the investigator and Mousse wouldn't have benefited from such a move. This left me with the fiancées and only one of them would have benefited if Ranma was thought to be unclean."

Setsuna scowled, "Sham Pu. I know that Ke Lun could go far in getting a husband for her great grand daughter but I didn't dream she would go _that_ far."

The general paused "The thing is Ke Lun effectively stopped actively doing anything after the Phoenix Pill fiasco. I think she realized that forcing Ranma was a majority bad idea. As with most of Ranma's problems with the Joketsuzoku I reasoned that this was one of Sham Pu's own bright baka ideas. And like everything else she tried it blew up in her face."

Ranko shook her head "Doesn't sound like the Sham Pu we know."

The general nodded setting down his tea cup "You are right. It is _not_ the Sham Pu you know anymore than I am the Yamato Hirohito of _this_ history. Different histories result in different versions of people."

"On that note just what was Phoenix Pill fiasco?" asked Pai.

The general smiled "Ke Lun used the cat tongue technique on Ranma. It makes warm water fell like its boiling and thus prevents one from returning to their warm water form. The Phoenix Pill is the cure. Ke Lun got a first hand demonstration of the Neko-ken as a result of that little idea."

Genma chuckled "That wouldn't work in this world. Not unless she wanted a royally pissed Sanjiyan Unkara on her case."

Ranko nodded, "True but this technique bothers me. Part of what keeps Ranma and me sane is our ability to trade off weeks. Depriving us of that would not be a good thing. What if the coming freekshow knows it?"

"By coming freekshow I assume you are talking about a certain three foot high grandmaster that glomps women, steals their underwear and says 'Sweeto' occasionally," said the general scowling. "_That_ mess is a royal pain even in my world. Despite the changes he made some people turned out much the same way they in his birth history." The general sighed and reaching into his shirt pocket he unfolded a piece of paper. "This is my contribution to the Ganso Musabetsu Kakuto Ryu; the most powerful nonlethal technique the school has--the Oppenheimer Retributive Strike. This technique ended the war with the US in 1942 in my history.

Genma picked up the paper and paled as he read it. "This requires that the user to have been in a Jusenkyo pool because it uses Ki and Chakra to duplicate the effects of Jusenkyo and it needs a template of the magic."

The general nodded. "When I trained with Ranma in Europe in 1921 he gave me two castes of Jusenkyo water for my future wife and I to use if Japan ever entered into a war with China during my reign. He said in his world that war had ended in a leveled Tokyo and two Japanese cities being destroyed by a horrible weapon. He further said _that_ war was unwinnable but the water would give me the tools to fight the true enemy of Japan and the key to end the war before it got to that level." the general's eyes took on the aspect of a man who had seen too much needless death and destruction.

"Sailor Nemesis then showed up and took me to the Hiroshima of Ranma's birth history August 6, 1945 9:00 AM. In 1931 she took both me and my wife there so she would understand why we needed to use the water. Sadly my duties as Emperor as well as the Black Dragon Society prevented us from taking the direct approach that I still feel was needed. While Ranma had prevented Nazi Germany from existing and the Austrian-Hungarian government had been replaced by a more forward thinking Saotome Deutsche Republik they were busy fighting what would be later called the SDR-USSR war.

General Yamato's face became grim, "By the time they finished and started rebuilding what once been the USSR our misguided adventures in Asia had already brought into unavoidable conflict with the US. The more I thought the more I realized that the war was being driven by the idea that the Japanese were superior to the other peoples of the world. My wife Nagako was at first convinced that Jusenkyo has made us unpure from a Japanese point of view and that gave me the admittedly crazy idea that if I could somehow bathe a Japanese city in the magic of Jusenkyo I would not only destroy that foundation but the ideas that allowed Ranma to be driven from his Japan. What little Ranma knew of history Sailor Nemesis could use as a baseline to give me my targets, dates, and times, which is how I was signing the surrender agreement on the USS Arizona on September 2, 1942.

Genma looked up from the paper "USS Arizona?! But that ship..." General Yamato smiled sadly "In _this_ history yes. But in my world Ranma knew about Pearl Harbor and so had been training the sailors there. When despite my best efforts the idea to attack got the green light what in this world had been the most stunning victory Japan ever had turned into the greatest military disaster Japan ever had in my history. That very day I gathered my family together and we escaped to Pearl Harbor. I thought that if I was in the hands of the Americans that it would undermine the whole Japanese war machine. That idea quickly fell apart and I came up with the desperate idea that if I was shown to be leading American troops that this war was not _my_ wish but that that of modern day Shogun that I could prevent needless slaughter."

Ukyo nodded "That explains the US army uniform. But it doesn't explain why if Japan surrendered 40 years ago why you still wear it."

General Yamato got up and looked out over the back yard. "Because somebody got the totally baka idea that I _really_ would be a general not just appear to be one. Since it was my idea I was honor bound to go through with it even though I had limited my battles to the troops Tojo had deluded with his propaganda. After the war ended they realized that Japan still needed her Emperor but it was not practical from a propaganda standpoint for me to step down so President Roosevelt signed an executive order allowing me to be both a US Army General and the Emperor of Japan." raising his hand he continued "I know that strictly speaking the order is unconstitutional but no one has challenged it and I doubt any one really wants to. In any case over the years it became a matter of honor that I be seen in my uniform which is why I am still on active duty. There is even a US Purple base just off the coast so I actually have a command which has the very delicate duty of being the first at dealing with problems in Asia."

General Yamato looked back his face filled with emotional pain. "When Sailor Nemesis appeared and made it clear just what Ranma had prevented there developed a variation of an old saying. 'The nail that sticks up is the one that gets hammered but Saotome Ranma is the nail that broke the hammer.' he turned and faced Setsuna, 'This isn't _my_ Japan. I don't belong here. Other than showing that other histories even improbable ones exist I have no _purpose_ here. Learning of my existence could only bring more pain to my counterpart Emperor Hirohito. Please, Setsuna-sama, take me home."

Setsuna nodded as she and General Yamato vanished in a flash of light. Sailor Pluto sat looking at the spot where her counterpart had vanished. Genma looked at Pendragon Oni, "Oni, I think the one thing we can pulled out of this is that a person is the product of their experiences. The experiences of Omikami Amaterasu are just as important as Pendragon Oni; it doesn't have to be either one or the other it can be _both_." said Genma pointing to Ranko "my daughter Ranko and Ranma share one body why can't you and Amaterasu?"

"Amaterasu?" came the familiar voice of Yakumo from the door leading out to the back yard. Turning everyone saw him and Sham Pu standing with puzzled expressions on their faces. "Who are visitors?" asked Sham Pu as her eyes unfocused, "Their auras looks like that of Sanjiyan Unkara."

Genma stood "They are distantly related to Parvati and it seems to me as well." gesturing to his guest Genma continued "This is Okuninushi ruler of the spirit world and his niece Pendragon Oni formally known as Omikami Amaterasu."

"_Formally_ known as Omikami Amaterasu?" asked Yakumo while a few things about Ranma's reflexes fell into place for Sham Pu. Sham Pu had wondered when told about the other timeline during lunch the day Mousse had shown up how Ranma had been able to beat Sa Fulang but if Ranma was a decedent of a Sanjiyan Unkara then their natural ability to channel ki and chakra would help explain such a feat.

Oni smiled, "I lost my memory some 120 years ago and have called myself Pendragon Oni for the last 40 some years."

"But you are actually Amaterasu, the mother of Jimmu the first Emperor?"

Oni looked over at Okuninushi with a puzzled expression on her face. Sighing he put down his cup of tea, "Yes, she is though she at present knows nothing of it."

"After dinner I trust you will continue teaching me, Genma?"

"HAVE YOU LOST YOUR MIND?" yelled Okuninushi. "No, don't answer that," he said as Oni's gaze became hard as steel.

"Jealous of your distant relative?" Oni said as she fingering her necklace causing it to glow blue.

"How on earth is he related to you?" fumed Okuninushi.

Oni shrugged her shoulders, "Isn't it enough that he is a relation?"

"Not when his idea of training winds up dislocating your shoulder."

Oin's face became a dark storm cloud and in one swift motion she drew Excalibur and shoved it to the hilt into her left hand and slowly drew it out. Okuninushi stared as some smoke formed around her hand and it healed immediately. "He wasn't doing anything my scabbard couldn't fix even if he couldn't."

Ranko frowned, "But you weren't wearing the scabbard when you were training with Pops."

"Of course not that would have made him teaching me that much more difficult and less useful to me." Oni smiled cutting her left hand with Exclaibur's blade watching as it smoked and healed each time she did so. "The scabbard can heal injuries obtained even when not wearing it."

Sham Pu walked up and brushed Oni's hair from her face and looked at her forehead. "Ranko, there is an image of faint magic here."

Akane focused her upper eye and widened her other two in response to what she saw "The mark of Wu. _That_ is how the scabbard heals; it makes whoever wears it Wu."

Ranko narrowed her eyes, "Part of Oni's soul is actually in the scabbard. I imagine it returns when she removed it and that is how it healed Sailor Pluto."

Sailor Pluto started looking a little ill. "You mean I was Wu for a while?"

Ranko nodded, "Uh huh" as she watched Oni finally resheathed Excalibur.

"Looks like I decided to set up the restaurant in time, as it looks like you have gotten some more guests." said the familiar voice of Ke Lun from behind Yakumo.

"Restaurant? What is this about a restaurant, Great Grandmother?" asked Sham Pu hesitantly.

Ku Lun leaned on her staff, "Yes though the monetary needs of this house and dojo are provided by Parvati's wealth there is simply not enough _room_ for everybody here. To solve this problem and keep Mousse busy I have set up a restaurant. I need..." Ke Lun frowned and slightly shifted her stance, "no _desire_ you to live at the restaurant. It would provide me with the opportunity to better teach our fighting techniques."

Oni nodded, "I agree. One cannot depend on magic too much less it make you sloppy. That according to Mer-chan is how his student Pendragon Arthur died; he become too dependent on the scabbard to heal his injuries and was unable to fight properly when he lost it. This is why I was training without the scabbard, so not to be come too dependent on it."

Ke Lun nodded, "Very good advice, my dear."

Oni smiled "Thank you. I found three people I am related to. Saotome Genma and Okuninushi here as well as a US Army brigadier general from another history named Hirohito Yamato. Seems I have a son named Jimmu though I haven't met him yet."

Ke Lun's face turned into one of utter shock. "But that means your real name is Omikami Amaterasu."

Sham Pu looked at Oni all three of her eyes the size of dinner plates. "But that is the supreme kami of Japanese pantheon."

"If you can call seven wanderlust kami only one of whom is from Japan, an amnesiac kami-sama and her totally befuddled spirit world ruling nephew a pantheon. The rest of the pantheon seems to for what ever reason packed it bags and left some 130 years ago." muttered Okuninushi "I should get the Shichi Fukujin to come here; I would love to see how Fukurokuju's wisdom stands up to this."

"Kasumi, do Genma and I have enough time to do some more training before dinner is ready?" asked Oni.

"I believe so Pendragon-san." said Kasumi from the kitchen.

Oni smiling broadly and unbuckled her scabbard and got up and walked into the back yard, "As they say no tine like the present to learn."

Genma smiled getting up and following Oni, "I like the way you think."

'Ranko am I the only one who see this as _not_ a good thing?' thought Ranma.

'I have my doubts as well. The way Oni was using Excalibur a while ago was well... not healthy.'

'Not to mention that now that Pop knows he is related to Amaterasu he could really get full of himself.'

'I doubt it.' commented Ranko mentally 'I far as I can tell Pops is training Oni without her offering him any money and he didn't seem to know that she was Amaterasu. That means that Pops is training her because she _respects_ her.

'Pops _respecting_ someone?' snickered Ranma 'Yeh right. One thing though, is it my imagination or are there a few more Oni in the yard then when we left?"

Ranko frowned, 'You are right there _are_ more Oni. But the only ones would could have summoned them would have been Genma and Soun.'

'Pops would have only summoned them to train Yakumo one he mastered the basics which means Soun is likely the one summoning them. But why?'

"Soun, finally embracing being a Sanjiyan Unkara I see." commented Ranko.

Soun smiled "Yes once I have mastered enough Sanjiyan Unkara abilities I will be able to speak to my late wife again."

Okuninushi froze as Sailor Pluto's eyes started getting large, 'What did he just say?!' came a mental comment from Parvati. Akane, Nabiki, and Kasumi just stared at their father. Pai was the first to break the strange silence. "Makes sense to me. Sanjiyan Unkara can pull souls out of the living and Sailor Moon did comment that she was the reincarnated daughter of the woman in my painting. So why not communicate with the soul of someone no longer in this world?"

Okuninushi rubbed his head "Just what makes you think you _have_ that right?"

Soun frowned at Okuninushi, "Isn't it obvious? The answer is staring you right in the face. It was stated that Sanjiyan Unkara were the Kami of the Hindus and we have seen that Parvati and Amaterasu are related. Pai commented on Hercules being a uncle and I found out that he was the son of Zeus who in turn was brother to Hades king of the afterlife. The answer is clear as crystal; Sanjiyan Unkara _are_ the Kami of the world and I am a Sanjiyan Unkara."

Okuninushi stiffened and slowly got up, "Don't think some magical water puts you in our realm, mortal."

Soun got up and walked up to Okuninushi, "Who said anything about _your_ realm, Okuninushi? For all their power and immortality Sanjiyan Unkara are still in the end _human_ and that includes you and your aunt." Soun continued shoving a finger into Okuninushi's chest, "Besides while you may be the ruler of the Japanese spirit world the Hindu pantheon only has one active member around, Parvati. That means the ruling position of the Buddhist spirit world is vacant: so I claim that position for myself."

Okuninushi rolled his head back and laughed, "You don't want much do you mortal? You want the position so to bring back your wife. What a pathetically selfish reason."

Soun glowered and opened her three eyes, "Who said anything about _bringing_ her back? Unless she achieved Nirvana or moved on she is already coming back. The thing is she will not know of her previous lives so the only time I will be able talk to my wife is between reincarnations as I cannot grow old and die." Soun features softened, "Besides there are 300 years worth of souls that have had no guidance even since Siva all but wiped out the Hindu pantheon. Perhaps my motives are not entirely selfless but at least I am finally being a martial artist rather than the shell I once was."

Ranko cleared her throat, "Soun does have a point. It's clear that the Japanese pantheon in part is related to the Sanjiyan Unkara of China and the Hindu pantheon is a shambles. But I would raise the question on our own pantheon. What happened to most of them? Where have _they_ been these last 120 years?"

Okuninushi frowned. "I don't know. There is no evidence of any kind of battle and the only grave is to someone from European myth - Merlin."

Ranma's face took on a look of utter fury. In quiet icy voice she stated. "The only way you could have known that was if you visited the city in the last 40 years. Certainly even if Oni was leaving from time to time I imagine she left notes regarding her presence. So why did you simply leave her there even though it was clear she was alone?"

Okuninushi blanched and hung his head in shame. "Because the only message I found was typed in _English_ and signed by someone I didn't recognize."

Ranko's gaze softened slightly only in that it was now more like iron than diamond. "Not even Pops at his worse would do something _that_ baka. You better hope that Oni takes it as well as I have or I am going to have to help Kasumi scrap you off the walls."

Okuninushi looked out to the backyard where Genma was training Oni. He frowned as he heard the sound of a blow being blocked followed by Genma's voice. "You adapt very well. You modified a Kenjutsu attack into an effective defense enough though you don't have a sword or sheath."

"Of course, use what you know and learn more is not that the basis of your school?" Genma laughed and from the sound of things went into some more attacks.

"The body is that of my aunt but the person in that body is a total stranger." Okuninushi stood. "You do have a point thought. Whatever happened to my fellow Japanese Kami is connected to what caused Amaterasu to hide from the world. Perhaps that is why I can't find them; they don't know who they really are. Please ask Oni to forgive a foolish kami who in his arrogance and pride left her alone longer than she needed to be. Soun, you have a lot to learn before you can even begin to be the ruler of any spirit world, but you will find out that out in due time. And time is one thing you have a lot of." Okuninushi chuckled softly as he simply faded from view.

'Well that was _real_ useful.' Ranma commented sarcastically mentally.

'I agree but at least we won't have to have Okuninushi and Oni getting on each other nerves.' Ranko sent back.

'Soun did surprisingly raise a good point. What _are_ our duties to mortals as kami? Beyond simply protecting them as martial artists I mean.' asked Ranma mentally.

Ranko looked at Soun and picked up her teacup, "Akane, Nabiki, Kasumi at one level your father is right. With our power we are kami on a level above that of nushi. As such our duty and responsibility to mortals is greater." Ranko paused to sip her tea and her words to sink in, "Pops had to reassess his views and I think its time we did likewise. I told Unchan that we Sanjiyan Unkara and our Wu are in this world but never really a part of it because that is what Parvati taught us. But as Soun and Nabiki correctly pointed out Sanjiyan Unkara _are_ human."

Kasumi glanced back from her stove frowning. "Humans that are immortal, can summon oni, and that have dozens of abilities beyond what is concerned normal?"

Nabiki smiled. "Yes, Kasumi, we are human, at least part of the time. And as Genma and General Yamato showed we can have children with other humans. Though I would love to know how _that_ happened."

Ranko smiled. "You mean Pops and Emperor Hirohito being both descendants of Amaterasu?"

Nabiki nodded silently as the sounds of Genma training Oni got a little louder which basically meant they were getting more violent with each other. "Exactly. I mean its clear that Oni didn't well for lack of better term 'fool around' and there is no way I can see the Amaterasu of legend doing that either. So how did the line to Genma get started?"

Ranko shrugged. "Most likely explanation is somehow the Yamato line splintered off and became part of the Saotome line but how and when who knows?"

Ke Lun nodded, "Perhaps Setsuna knows. Why don't you come down the stairway normally my dear. Your efforts at stealth are well... an insult to the martial arts.'

Setsuna sighed as she descended the stairs, "Ok so without training Sanjiyan Unkara abilities are not enough to contend with a skilled martial artist."

Kasumi smiled and called out, "Genma, Oni, please clean up for dinner."

Genma and Oni came in laughing. "It is a pity I did not met you 10 years ago. You would have been a excellent training partner for the boy." Genma said slapping Oni on the back.

"If I knew learning martial arts was this much fun I would have simply left that empty city and trained under some Sensei."

Kasumi's smiled wavered at the sight of Genma and Oni. Their faces both sported several bruises including a black eye. Yes it had been for the best that Okuninushi had left. He would have likely become more violent than before at this sight and then she would have had to clean up the resulting mess.

Nabiki simply stared at the pair as they continued comparing attacks and defenses as they climbed the stairs to the bathroom. "Ok, now I am officially spooked."

Several minutes later Genma and Oni returned and Kasumi happily served dinner. Nabiki watched in amazement as Genma, Soun, and Oni talked about martial arts while raiding each other plates with Shampoo and Ke Lun asking the occasional question. Yakumo, Kasumi, and Ranko all started getting a little nervous though for very different reasons. Yakumo listened to techniques from the Sazan Ryu and was wondering how to get away from the obvious fugitives from the local loony bin. Kasumi was becoming nervous as Oni showed again and again that she was the opposite of Amaterasu the embodiment of proper Japanese female behavior. Ranko was nervous because he had never seen Pops take a liking to someone so quickly.

Setsuna commented during dinner about how sometime in the 1500's a daughter of the Emperor had been lost and thought dead in an attack by bandits. In reality she had been found with amnesia by a samurai of the Saotome clan. A strong caring man he noticed that her bearing marked her as a lady of some quality. After a year of intensive searching Amaterasu herself had convinced the samurai to marry the woman. He accepted and she bore him many children finally dying some 70 years after her father Emperor had thought she died.

Near the end of dinner Akane started asking Shampoo about the Laws of the Joketsuzoku and the events for the timeline leading to General Yamato came out. Shampoo was furious and stated that the Laws of the Joketsuzoku were going to get a total overhaul; that they turned her in such a dishonorable person in that other world showed how wrong they were. Ke Lun inwardly sighed, Sham Pu being both Joketsuzoku and Sanjiyan Unkara was going to be even more challenging than she first thought. Setsuna's access to other histories was going to make justifying many Laws next to impossible especially if they resulted in disasters. It was going to be a long night and tomorrow was going to be a _really_ long day.

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	16. Chap 16 Family Matters

Chap 16 Family Matters

Ranma 1/2 is the creation of Rumiko Takahashi, 3x3 eyes (Sazan Eyes) is the creation of Yuzo Takada, Sailor Moon is the creation of Naoko Takeuchi, Yugioh is Kazuki Takahashi. There are also a few other characters from other anime. This fan-fiction isn't intended for commercial use but is rather a tribute to Ranma 1/2, 3x3 Eyes, Sailor Moon, and Yugioh.

[Author's note: The Iaiujutau is a Kunjutsu technique when the user draws and attacks with the sword in one motion. You will notice that Shampoo and Pai will at times fall into their old habits of referring to themselves in the third person. This usually means that they are emotionally stressed or just plain angry. While Sham Pu's father does show up in the manga it is not clear if her mother is still alive and given my knowledge Chinese is next to nil I desided to give him a cameo but not a name.

Setsuna had found that being a demon allowed her to call up the Time Gates rather having to go to them. Not that it had solved the problem of them being useless for seeing this Nerima's future. However it had allowed her to talk Sailor Pluto into looking at Ranma's past so as to better understand him. It had taken her a good hour to convince Sailor Pluto not to Death Scream Genma into little panda burgers after witnessing the Neko-ken training first hand. Setsuna decided to look further back into the past hopefully to calm Sailor Pluto down and knew enough to skip the mess with Ukyo. Setsuna was curious on how Genma smoothtalked his wife into going on a 10 year training trip and saw Ranma putting a handprint on some sort of document. Freezing the scene she focused on the document.

"What the blazes is that?" asked Sailor Pluto.

"It looks like a seppuku contract." came a cold voice from behind them. Both of them turned and saw Pendragon Oni her face an emotionless mask. "Excuse me, but I have to ask Sensei something." she turned and walked back into the house. Several minutes later Oni returned her face still an emotionless mask. "Seems that Genma-sensei had Ranma sign a contract that he and Ranma would commit seppuku if Ranma didn't return as a 'man among men'. The problem is the contract doesn't spell out what that means."

Oni's face got a puzzled look on it and she shook her head and it returned to the emotionless mask of before. The face frighten Setsuna as it was one she had seen on her counterpart Sailor Pluto in the other timeline. "You aren't going to to do something drastic are you?"

Oni smiled but there was no joy in her eyes just that same cold emotionless look. "No more drastic than what Saotome Nodoka would do to her own child." she said as she turned and walked to the gate of the backyard.

Setsuna got up "Pendragon Oni." she called.

Oni stopped her hand on the gate "No. Not Pendragon Oni anymore. I will honor both Merlin and my position by using the name Pendragon Amaterasu."

"Kuno would have a field day with that name." Setsuna commented trying to hide the fact that she was scared.

Pendragon paused and again shook her head frowning. "Yes he would. But it should show just how unhappy I am regarding how Ranma has been treated," she said leaping over the gate while her hand remained on it. Landing she smiled humor finally showing in her eyes "Don't worry, unlike Sailors Pluto, Uranus, or Neptune I do _not_ believe in acceptable losses."

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Saotome Nodoka finished dressing in her kimono and put her sword on her back. She was troubled by the rumors coming out of Nerima about a Saotome Ranma that changed into a girl that called herself Saotome Ranko. Of course there were all kinds of wild stories also coming out of Nerima; three eyed girls, demons and major kami appearing on nearly a daily basis. It was time to go to Furinkan High School and see how Ranma measured up to being a 'man among men'. But why did she have this foreboding?

Nodoka arrived at the school early and saw a beautiful woman in very poorly made white leather armor with a Western sword and scabbard on her hip standing by the gate. Nodoka stopped as a European demon landed beside the woman and started talking to her. She then noticed a group of girls walking to the gate and among them was a girl matching the description of Saotome Ranko. As she moved to intercept the girl she saw the swordswoman move in the same direction. As she approached Nodoka overheard the girl's chat and it was not what she had expected. Instead of talk about boys or cooking she got an earful of martial artist techniques and details of injuries that made her stomach do somersaults.

The red head broke the conversation and ran over to her. "You all right? You don't look very well."

Nodoka smiled weakly fighting the urge to throw up. "I overheard your little talk. I can't say that the topics were very lady like."

The taller foreign looking girl shook her head "On the contrary it is very lady like to go over fighting training." she said her voice having a strong Chinese accent.

Nodoka frowned, "Fighting training? Sounded more like you were going over some horrible battle."

The taller foreign girl snorted "No battle. Just last night's training of my Wu. Even with Genma teaching him Yakumo is going to take a lot of work to be even remotely useful."

"Pops knew that when Parvati asked for him to help, Sham Pu. Must admit he and Oni get along well with each other."

"Someone mention me?" said the swordswoman as she hugged the red head "Hello, Ranko. Sorry about skipping morning sparring but there were some issues I had to sort out. By the way I am using my real first name along with the Pendragon family name to honor Merlin. You can call me Am-cham if you want to be really informal."

"I the great Blue Thunder will free you from the foul sorcerer Saotome." proclaimed a boy in the remnants of a kendoist gi.

"Oh for crying out loud." muttered Pendragon "Kuno when are you going to get it through that thick head of yours that Saotome Ranma is a decedent of mine and not a foul sorcerer?"

"Never fear the Blue Thunder has the solution here." Kuno proclaimed as he slapped a Shinto ward on Oni's head.

Pendragon's eyes widened, then closed and she started falling to the ground. Ranko caught Pendragon and looking up at Kuno she asked "Alright True Blunder just what piece of stupidity have you gone off and done this time?"

Pendragon slowly opened her eyes and looked at Ranko. "I seemed to have fainted. Thanks for catching me. May I ask who I have the honor of addressing?"

Ranko blinked her eyes and looked down at Oni. "Am-chan it's me, your decedent Saotome Ranko though my father Genma."

Nodoka's frown deepened but she was interested in this women that Ranko said Genma was descended from and so simply stood quietly.

"Saotome? Oh that is right. The daughter of my decedent Emperor Go-Nara was attacked by bandits and rescued by a Samurai of the Saotome clan. Seems the shock of the attack made her loose her memory. He was a good strong honorable man unlike that man her father arranged her to marry so I left things stay that way. She never regained her memory but her decedents were all as great and honorable as the samurai, which is why the shock of seeing one of them defer to that barbarian Commodore Parry made me faint." Pendragon smiled "But I am fine now." She then frowned as she stood and removed the shinto ward, "This, however little, _did_ hurt me; who used this against me and why?"

"That would be Kuno the school's resident idiot and moron, Pendragon-san," said Ranko.

"Why do you call me Pendragon-san?"

"Because that is the name you told me your were going to use to honor Merlin," said Ranko, "Pendragon Amaterasu"

Amaterasu blinked and shook her head, "One moment I am fainting because that round eyed barbarian Perry has such much power and the next thing I know I am standing in a strange city and being told I have taken on another clan's name. Would somebody mind telling me what is going on?"

"Short version is you have been like Emperor Go-Nara's daughter for the last 120 years," said Ranko.

"Ukyo let me have that battle spatula, I need to serve up some Kuno no Baka." commented the long haired girl.

"Would it be rude if Shampoo help Akane pound Kuno into ground?" asked Sham Pu heatedly.

"The more the merrier." said Akane. "Nabiki, you can collect bets on how long Kuno will be in the nurse's office this time."

The small purple haired girl walked up to Kuno, "Just what did you do to our friend Pendragon Oni?" she asked in a voice colder than ice.

"It was supposed to be Pendragon Amaterasu but looks like Kuno managed to mess that up," said Ranko.

"Nice job, Kuno, you got Hotaru mad at you." commented Nabiki who looked at the smaller foreign girl, "You seem unusually happy, Pai." The rest of the girls stopped talking about who got first dibbs on pounding Kuno and listen intently at what Pai was going to say.

The girl nodded, "Oh yes. I know that relative Pendragon Amaterasu share body with other person just like Pai and Parvati share this body." Pai bowed slightly to the swordswoman as she introduced everyone else, "I am Saotome Pai, these are sisters Ranko and Ukyo, friend and sensei Tendo Akane, her sister Nabiki, friend and sensei Sham Pu, friend and training partners Hibiki Ryoga and Tomoe Hotaru, and teacher Meiou Setsuna. We are all pleased to finally meet you, Onikami Amaterasu."

Saotome Nodoka stiffened. "Omikami Amaterasu?!" she said in awe looking at the woman who had been addressed as Pendragon even as she was thinking over what else had been said.

Amaterasu bowed to Pai so slightly that only a martial artist or someone very familiar with Japanese culture could have told she had bowed at all. While she was smiling her eyes showed confusion, "Pleased to meet all of you. Could you tell me where I am?"

"You are in the capital city of Japan, Tokyo formally known as Edo." said Pai smiling broadly.

Nabiki frowned and snapped her fingers, "Wait a minute. _That_ has been what has been bothering me ever since we found that city in the Sanjiyan Unkara world. When Commodore Perry arrived even though the Shoguns ruled from Edo, the Emperor and the capital of Japan were in Kyoto some 120 miles to the west."

Setsuna frowned, "Nabiki, you're right. In fact Edo didn't become the new capital until the Meiji Restoration in 1868 some 12 years after Commodore Perry showed up. I guess in the excitement I forgot that piece of history."

Ranko paused as if listening to someone, "My brother Ranma says something doesn't add up. All the evidence is that Amaterasu lost her memory when Commodore Perry forced Japan to open up to the world. Shouldn't the palace been where the Emperor's was at that time?"

Pai shook her head, "Our brother is forgetting one important detail. The Sanjiyan Unkara world doesn't exactly echo this world. Sister Parvati's people lived in an area that was largely devoid of people in this world. Perhaps the Japanese kami capital always was where Edo was in this world and a Shogun sensed it."

Amaterasu smiled, "You are right Pai-san. Tokugawa Ieyasu recognized that we had chosen the location echoed in this world by Edo and set up his shogunate there. But I am puzzled you called our realm the Sanjiyan Unkara world as it is more properly called Sazan."

Pai smiled again. "Sazan? Well better than calling it Sanjiyan Unkara Holy Land."

Amaterasu's face paled slightly. "You said your sister's name was Parvati? As in wife of Hindu god Siva, Parvati?" she asked nervously.

Pai frowned, "Fiancé actually. He go power mad and take lives of all other Sanjiyan Unkara in Holy Land to stop him. I am now wondering if he wasn't being controlled just like Hotaru's father is." Pai them smiled "But thanks to Jusenkyo sister Parvati now knows she not last Sanjiyan Unkara. She have sister Ranko, friends Akane, Nabiki, Kasumi, their father Soun and relations Oni, Okuninushi, and now Amaterasu."

Amaterasu put her hand under her chin in thought, "But you introduced yourself as Saotome Pai."

"Of course, brother Ranma have father Genma adopt Ranko, Parvati, and myself into Saotome clan." Pai giggled, "Funny thing is we now know that we were already related by blood though you and Oni. So instead of distant cousins Ranma and Ranko now brother and sister."

Kuno held up his hand and turned to face Pai, "Excuse me but let me see if the Blue Thunder has this right. You are the sister to the fierce tigress Parvati who in turn is related by blood to Okuninushi and Amaterasu." Pai nodded happily, "Also Parvati, Okuninushi, Amaterasu, Akane, Nabiki, Kasumi, their father, and the pig tailed goddess are a type of kami called Sanjiyan Unkara." Pai again nodded happily. "And you were adopted by Ranma's father into the Saotome clan which was also related to Amaterasu by blood."

Pai jumped up and clapped her hands "Yes exactly. Now do you see, Kuno? My brother Ranma is not a foul sorcerer."

Kuno nodded in thought, "Yes now the Blue Thunder sees. Ranma is in fact a kami sent to test the worthiness of the Blue Thunder to be so admired by such kami."

Pai smiled dropped while everyone else save Amaterasu and Nodoka face faulted. "Arrrggghh!" yelled Akane after she got up. "Ranma's not Sanjiyan Unkara any more than Pai or Hotaru are. They're Wu!"

Kuno frowned "Wu? What is Wu?"

Pai smiled again "Wu immortal indestructible guardians of Sanjiyan Unkara. They are created by Sanjiyan Unkara drawing soul through third eye and merging it with their own. Pai Ranko's Wu, Ranma is Parvati's, Hotaru is Akane's, and Yakumo is Sham Pu's."

Shampoo frowned, "Good thing I am a skilled martial artist. Even with Genma and Oni training him it's going to be a while before he is more than simply a distraction."

Amaterasu blinked trying to make sense of what Kuno had said while Nodoka looked at Ranko and Pai. While she was angry at not being consulted on a matter so important as adopting someone into her family's clan she had to admit that Ranma had shown great insight in choosing Pai and Parvati. He had pulled fellow blood kin to Amaterasu into the Saotome clan. Nodoka was annoyed with Genma not revealing such an important detail of his family tree to her. However there was still one important matter to address.

"Pai, your father Saotome Genma had Ranma sign an important agreement when he was five..." Nodoka begun.

Ranko put her hand to her forehead and groaned, "Please tell me you are not another fiancée. Ranma and I just dealt with Pops tricking my brother at the age of five into running off with Ukyo's dowry even though Ranma had already been promised to one of the Tendo daughters. My brother and I solved that mess by having Pops adopt Ukyo into the clan but even with Sham Pu now living with Ke Lun at the restaurant she set up the Tendo home and dojo are little cramped."

"You're forgetting sugar that I have my own restaurant. I can live there if you need the room." said Ukyo.

Nodoka's face took on the look of a thundercloud, "No I am not another fiancée. I am Saotome Nodoka, Genma's wife..." Nodoka suddenly found herself in a bear hug by a seemingly eternally bubbly Pai. "You Genma's wife? Great, now Pai and Parvati have a mother again. You going to become Sanjiyan Unkara?"

"Hold on there Pai." said Ranko getting Pai to let the woman go. "Mother?"

Nodoka looked at the red head in front of her and she had to admit that the resemblance was uncanny, "Evidently so. But what did Pai mean by _becoming_ Sanjiyan Unkara?"

'Oh my aching head. Kuno you baka. What exactly did you do?' Amaterasu frowned at the voice she was hearing. 'Who are you?' she mentally asked. 'Formerly Pendragon Oni now Pendragon Amaterasu.' said the little internal voice 'Nice of you deciding to finally join us, Omikami Amaterasu. I have been running around in the physical world while you have been taking a little nap from reality for the last 120 years. I will bring you up to date once I address this problem.'

Amaterasu blinked in surprise and her face became harder. "I guess I should thank you, Kuno. Thanks to your bungling efforts at using a Shinto ward Amaterasu has finally gotten out of the mental cave she crawled into 120 years ago. Though personally I think your timing stinks."

Pai laughed, "See, Pendragon Amaterasu back."

Pendragon smiled "Yes but you can still call me Oni it you wish. It will help us know which Amaterasu you are trying to talk to straight." Pendragon shifted her stance so the side of her body was facing Kuno her fight hand at but away from her hip "And Kuno any rants about me being summoned by the foul sorcerer Saotome and I will have to _hurt_ you."

Ranko chuckled "You must have missed that part. He now thinks Ranma is a kami sent to test his worthiness of being beloved such so many Kami."

Pendragon rolled her head back and laughed, "Well at least it's better than foul sorcerer." then her lips became a thin line as she looked at Nodoka. "I learned about that little contract Genma tricked Ranma into sighed. Not that it matters. Regardless of what your definition of 'man among men' is there is no way to have a Wu commit seppuku."

Ranko sighed rubbing her head again, "Could you explain that a little clearer? Like beginning with what baka thing Pops actually went off and did."

"He tricked your brother at the age of five into signing a contract that said they both would commit seppuku if Ranma didn't return a 'man among men'. In typical Genma fashion the contract doesn't explain exactly what that 'man among men' means."

"SAY WHAT?!" exploded Akane. "That is even more idiotic than the Kiss of Death and Marriage laws. Sorry Shampoo." Akane said sheepishly.

"Don't apologize Akane, Laws _are_ stupid. Nearly destroy tribe in this world, turn Shampoo into heartless bitch in another, who knows what trouble they cause in other histories. At least I am brave enough to admit they are stupid which is more than can be said for tribe Elders." Shampoo glared at Nodoka who winced under the gaze.

"Wonderful. It is official. Pops is Baka-sama." Ranko smiled "You are right about Ranma being safe but what about Pops?"

Pendragon laughed again, "I don't think that a man that has gotten use to being in the middle of Sanjiyan Unkara Central with oni around on a daily basis is going to be troubled by a woman who body language shows she barely knows which end of the sword to even hold."

Ranko frowned, "Perhaps, but Ranma and I would feel better if you changed that stance of yours. We have seen you draw Excalibur enough times to know that it is your version of an Iaiujutau stance."

Pendragon smiled as she folded her arms across her chest "Better?"

"Definitely." said Ranko, "While the rest of us are use to the idea of Wu I don't think either Mom or Kuno is up to a demonstration."

Pendragon sighed "You are likely right. Omikami Amaterasu found my memories of our training of Yakumo and she's not taking it very well. In fact she is trying to do the mental equivalent of throw up." Pendragon smirked, "Violence happy maniac? And exactly what were the samurai of old when they were lopping off arms and head for sport?" Pendragon scowled, "Don't get all self righteous with me, Omikami. Here let me show you exactly why I blessed the mission of Colonel Paul Tibbets," Pendragon then smiled in a nasty master, "Don't like what your people did to Nanking, China? Well here is nice side order of Bataan while you are at it."

'And here I thought you and I had issues.' mentally commented Ranma.

"Oni-chan." said Ranko as she put her hand on Oni's shoulder, "Ranma and I know what you and Amaterasu are going through. In many respects it was worst for Ranma because he was always told by Pops girls were weak. Falling into a pool that gave him the body of a girl with cold water was bad enough for his ego but when I appeared he really took it hard. The only way he coped those first few days was by convincing himself that 'girl' didn't include female Sanjiyan Unkara or their Wu." Ranko chuckled even as her mother's expression became even darker, "Of course that was in reality a bandage to a gaping wound. Sham Pu bringing Yakumo as a Wu resulted in Ranma doing something really baka to win one of our mental sparring matches. The good thing that came out of that was that Pops finally admitted that perhaps he was wrong and we started relating to each other at a level more than simply sparring partners."

Ranko touched her cheek in thought "Pops was in rare form when he said that you and Amaterasu can learn from each other. Just because you share the same body doesn't mean you have to see eye to eye on everything. You just need to know where to compromise."

Pai nodded in understanding, "Even though Parvati and I have a less drastic physical change we have realized that we must compromise on certain things as well."

Akane cocked her head to the side "That reminds me. From what I understood Sanjiyan Unkara have two personalities, but I don't and as far as I can see neither does Shampoo, Nabiki, Kasumi, or father. Does that mean there is something wrong?"

Pai frowned "Pai not think so. I didn't exist until after battle with Siva, Oni take long time to form and even sister Ranko take awhile. Seems that it simply takes different times for each Sanjiyan Unkara."

Nodoka looked at Ranko critically as everything else she had heard about Nerima was evidently true, "You are saying that my son fell in to some pool that turned his body female and you now control that body?"

Ranko shook her head "That is only part of it. You see Ranma and I share this body. With warm water this body turns male and Ranma is out here, cold water makes it female and I interact with the outside world."

"Let me show you." Pendragon said as she got out a thermos, poured out some hot water in a cup and threw the contents in Ranko's face. The red headed girl promptly was replaced by a well muscled black haired young man. "Nice to see you again, Ranma."

Looking over at his shocked mother Ranma sighed, "Well at least Mom didn't pass out like Soun did when Pops used warm water." Kuno stood there blinking his eyes trying to sort through what had just happened.

"Ranma?" asked Nodoka noticing that there seemed to be a tattoo on her son's forehead.

"Uh huh." said Ranma turning to his sister Pai "If you are wondering about the tattoo it is the result of me becoming Wu." Ranma said as he brushed Pai's hair out of the way so everyone could better see her mark. "Pai has it too as does Hotaru." Ranma frowned turning back to his mother and Kuno "Kuno, Mom, you must understand. The world of the Sanjiyan Unkara is filled with beings whose abilities and powers were way above that of most _mortal_ martial artists."

Ranma chuckled "Yes sis _were_ not are. You said it yourself when you fought that thing that Akane drove out of Hotaru: the Sanjiyan Unkara Ganso Musabetsu Kakuto Ryu. Not to mention Pops is trying to teach the long lost Sazan Ryu."

Nodoka looked at Ranma with a worried expression on her face, "Ranma, who are you talking to?"

Ranma looked at his mother puzzled,. "Why Ranko of course." pointing to his head "when I am out here she goes back into my mind and sometimes goes looking through old memories that I have forgotten. More often than not they turn out to be demonstrations of Pops being Baka-sama."

Pendragon's stern features disappeared and she looked confused. Pai scowled "Oni, Parvati and Pai are going to have a long talk with you about using the Saotome Ryu Ogi on Amaterasu. Parvati used to do that with Pai and it caused all sorts of problems once Pai became human."

Nodoka looked at Pai troubled, "Became human?"

Pai nodded, "Pai originally Sanjiyan Unkara, fall into pool of drowned girl at Jusenkyo then become Ranko's Wu." glancing to Ranma, "Shouldn't we go in? I think there is only about 15 minutes left before the bell rings."

Ranma nodded, "Alright, Pai. Oni, Amaterasu try to sort this out between yourselves without following my example and doing something totally baka. Mom, I _will_ explain this in greater detail but this is just not the right time." Ranma said as he and the rest save his mother and Amaterasu entered the school.

Amaterasu looked at Nodoka, "Perhaps we could go somewhere and talk about this?"

Nodoka nodded her head, "Yes that sounds like a good idea. Maybe after we talk for a while this will make some sense."

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While Furinkan High School settled down into some degree of what passed for normal (ie somewhere between the Twilight Zone and Outer Limits in terms of weirdness) Tsukino Usagi was sorting through the previous days events. Even after she had powered down the attack and defense knowledge remained with her and she felt no _knew_ that she could still call on that power.

In many respects 'Sanjiyan Unkara power make up' had caused as many problems as it solved. Sure no one in her class knew she was Sailor Moon but they still knew that she transformed into some kind of Magical Girl. It didn't help she knew less about the Sanjiyan Unkara than about any of the foes they were facing so she really didn't have any answers to the many question she had been and would be asked. The worst part of it was the one power that actually scared her - the ability to make a Wu. The idea that she could go and pull somebody's soul out making them an unkillable guardian frightened her as it was far too similar to the life draining tactics of Queen Beryl, the servants of Makaiju, and Pharaoh 90.

Strangely she had felt she could confide the secret to Black Lady who after Usagi had gone over the process in detail pointed out that without a third eye there was nothing to worry about and leave it at that. Luna had been next to useless in finding out about what the Senshi of the Moon Kingdom had actually been and less than happy about Usagi's new transformation. Usagi had found one interesting by product - she woke up a full two hours before school totally refreshed.

Usagi was taking notes as she was thinking about meeting with Rai after school. There were things about Sanjiyan Unkara magic that made her wonder if Shintoism was in reality just another form of it. But her knowledge of Shintoism was next to nil but if she was right then she could teach Rai to refine her fire readings to where they were actually useful. Usagi frowned. She had been looking at her friends in a more critical light and it really bothered her. Perhaps 'Sanjiyan Unkara power make up' had done more than simply woken up the powers of the Moon Kingdom's founders. Definitely something to talk about in their next Sailor Senshi meeting.

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Ke Lun watched as Mu Si finished setting up the table for her and Sham Pu's father. Ke Lun had brought him to help argue for lenient treatment by the Sanjiyan Unkara his daughter had angered. It had been an unusual move but given the seriousness of the situation Ke Lun had felt it was justified. Instead Ke Lun was going to have to explain how Sham Pu was now part one of the Sanjiyan Unkara and she wasn't sure how either one of them was going to take it.

"I want you two to understand. Parvati a natural born Sanjiyan Unkara gave her blessing for Shampoo to be splashed with water from the Pool of Drowned Female Sanjiyan Unkara. This was the original purpose of the tournament when it was established 1500 years ago but the reason was lost when a Sanjiyan Unkara could not be found for a blessing." Ke Lun paused sipping the tea Mu Si had set out, "In my research on the tournament the reverence for the Sanjiyan Unkara was such that a Joketsuzoku warrior that became an Honored One was to have more authority than even the full Council of Elders. This means that Shampoo's word is absolute to the point being able to override or nullify any and all Joketsuzoku Laws."

Ke Lun steepled her hands as she continued, "Compounding matters is the fact that Shampoo is learning techniques from the Sanjiyan Unkara Ganso Musabetsu Kakuto Ryu; even though it is still in its early stages of formation it is powerful enough that Shampoo was able to toss me around like a white belt."

Mu Si and Sham Pu's father jaws dropped at that statement. "That is impossible!" said Mu Si finally.

Ke Lun shook her head "No, in my youth I knew the founder and grandmaster of the Ganso Musabetsu Kakuto Ryu, Happosai and even then I knew that his Ryu's ability to gather and use the techniques from other martial arts made it very powerful. The Sanjiyan Unkara Ganso Musabetsu Kakuto Ryu pushes Happosai's Ryu to a whole new level by combining martial arts maneuvers with Sanjiyan Unkara magic. Throw in access to the long lost Sazan Ryu and you have a level of martial arts that is as far above the best out there as a 10th Dan is above a white belt."

Sham Pu's father nodded in understanding, "I am beginning to see Elder. You are not only going to be a teacher but a student as well. As you teach my daughter Joketsuzoku Ryu techniques you are going to have her teach you Sanjiyan Unkara Ganso Musabetsu Kakuto Ryu techniques."

Ke Lun cackled, "Exactly. As an added bonus I have told Genma that I would help him train Shampoo's Wu giving me access to the Sazan Ryu as well. Heaven knows he is going to need as much help training Yakumo as he can get."

Mu Si's eyes narrowed. "My beloved Shampoo does not need a Wu when she has me to protect her in these early years of her life."

Ke Lun winced 'I am going to have to find tasks for this love sick fool to do for a while. If he sees just how unskilled Yakumo is he will interfere with Shampoo's training and teaching by showing just how he can better protect her. At least Yakumo listens to the advice he is given.'

The conversation slowly gravitated to just what to do if more of the tribe showed up.

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Amaterasu looked at Nodoka beside her "I at first felt overwhelmed by Tokyo but Pendragon-sama pointed out this path she regularly uses." They stopped in front of a little house and Amaterasu nodded when she saw the sign "Tendo Dojo, That made sense as two of the young ladies were named Tendo." she said as she knocked on the door.

The door was opened by a smiling young woman who strongly resembled the two they had met at the high school. "Oni, come on in. I see you brought another visitor. Is she family too?"

Amaterasu smiled at the young women, "Yes, Kasumi. She is Ranma's mother. Where is Genma?" she asked as she removed the scabbard from her hip and sat it down.

"Out back trying to see what maneuvers from the Sazan Ryu will be best suited to train Yakumo in." Kasumi replied.

Nodoka looked out into the backyard and paled at what she saw; there were well over a dozen oni there. Standing in the middle of it was her husband who was pointing out something in a book he had to a woman in an ill fitting brown Gi. Genma then gestured and a small oni looking like a skateboard with legs appeared. The woman nodded and laughing heartily slapped Genma on the back. Genma smiled and closing the book walked toward the house.

Genma's smile broaden on seeing Amaterasu, "Oni, I found a few things that Soun and I think Yakumo will be able to learn without too much trouble. You and I can go over some of the advanced techniques and determine which ones are best suited Ranko and Parvati to learn." setting the book down Genma frowned, "We are going to need every bit of training we can get our hands on if the Master is coming in a month's time."

Amaterasu smiled gesturing to Nodoka, "Hello, Genma. I brought some more family to see you."

Genma smiled "I hope she is as rough and tumble as you are." Genma cocked his head to the side "You know she reminds me of my wife."

Nodoka narrowed her eyes "There is a good reason for that. I _am_ your wife."

Genma nodded his head, "Oh that explains it." Then his expression fell as what had been said finally registered, "Nodoka?!"

Nodoka nodded her head as she pulled out her sword, "Yes dear. And I would like to know WHAT IN THE WORLD YOU HAVE DONE TO OUR SON?!" she bellowed.

There was a time when the image of his wife having drawn her sword would have sent Genma running for the hills. However as Pendragon had pointed out dealing with Sanjiyan Unkara and their oni had given him something of a backbone. Also Ranma had been right in the respect that finding out that he was descended from Amaterasu had inflated his ego but not in the way Ranma had thought. Genma could care less about the female kami that hid away in a cave because of a few verbal insults but the female kami who took blows without so much a whimper now she was someone worthy to be descended from.

This was why Genma was still facing his wife rather than running and looking for a place to hide, "Why I made him so much a man among men that Parvati the supreme goddess of the Hindu pantheon chose him as her Wu." Genma said puffing himself up. "Now a Wu is..."

"You don't need to explain to me what a Wu is husband. I met Pai earlier today and I she told me all about the process for making a Wu." Nodoka said her anger making her grip the family sword so hard her knuckles turned white, "That is not why I am angry at you. I am angry because you went and got our manly son to turn into a woman part of the time."

"What's wrong dear? I thought you would be happy. For Ranma to be a man among men he would have to know what women want and what better way to know that than to share one's body with one? Besides from what I understand his fiancée Tendo Akane isn't wild about men anyhow, right Soun old friend?"

Nodoka blinked at her husband's statement while Pendragon started mentally laughing 'Once I learned about your idea on manhood I always wondered how you were able to cope with your son turning into a woman who could pound you silly. Now I know. That comment about Akane though is going to draw one conclusion from your wife.'

"You mean Akane is a lesbian?!" asked a paling Nodoka. 'Yep right on cue.' commented Pendragon.

Soun shook his head, "Perhaps not quite to that level but thanks to that Kuno character my daughter Akane is still at the boys and men are icky stage." looking at Nodoka critically, "besides what is wrong with turning into a female Sanjiyan Unkara? I admit it shocked me at first but the power I gained will allow me to contact my late wife."

Nodoka slowly lowered her sword as she remembered something, "Tendo Soun? But you are supposed to be a _man_."

"I am still man when I douse myself with warm water." Soun smiled as a dog sized tadpole like creature with an eye in its mouth came up and chirped at Soun. "After a while these Fei-Oh grow on you." Soun said as he tickled the thing under the chin.

Nodoka finally hit her weirdness limit and, her eyes rolling up in her head, promptly fainted.

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While Nodoka may have hit her weirdness limit Furinkan High School was not even close to the level of strange it could handle. This was true even though this was the day Kuno Kocho returned to school after a three year absence. Setsuna waited nervously for the first baka rule that the Hawaiian Nutjob would proclaim and actually found it a relief when she had to douse Hikaru Gosunkugi when his attempt at casting binding spell on her to get a better grade had its usual results. "Hikaru-sama," Setsuna said tiredly "I would find your attempts at magic less annoying if they didn't involve wearing a crown of candles that tends to set your hair ablaze. Do us all a favor and learn how real magic works." Of course the idea of the spooky boy getting his hands on real magic scared the girls silly which is how the end of gym class got weird.

While Parvati's coldness had scared many of the girls they found Ranko and Pai far easier to approach and talk to. Pai in particular was well liked as she always seemed to say just the right thing to cheer you up and was totally open about her feelings. When the girls realized that Pai was not all that worldly wise most of them vowed to protect her. While everyone had seen Ranma's transformation the girls had not really accepted there were two people there until Pai had demonstrated her change. The only thing that still unnerved them was the fact that since Parvati could see and hear everything Pai did then Ranma could see and hear everything Ranko did.

"Pai," said a timid girl to Pai as they were showering "There is this well spooky looking boy who tries to use magic. He set his hair afire again trying to control Setsuna and Setsuna said he should learn how real magic works."

"I understand. You afraid that this boy learn real magic rather than simply about it and use it to get a date." said Pai who then chuckled "Don't worry our magic doesn't work that way."

"But I heard that Kuno knocked out Oni with a Shinto ward."

"Actually he only awakened other personality that had been sleeping for 120 years. It was interesting to finally meet Omikami Amaterasu."

"I heard you are related to her," said the girl the awe in her voice.

"Yes, it is so great to know you are not alone." nodded Pai with her familiar happy tone. Pai then put her hand on the hot water knob, "May I ask something?" a tinge of sadness in her voice.

"Sure, Pai."

Pai turned and faced the girl, "Why are you frightened of me?"

The girl was confused but only for a moment as she slowly realized that there was no mark of Wu on Pai's forehead. Tentatively she put her hand in the water stream Pai was under and found it was warm.

"Parvati?" asked the girl.

Parvati simply nodded looking at the girl. The girl noticed that there wasn't the confidence or superior air that Parvati normally had. Instead these were the eyes of someone very lonely. Slowly the girl spoke, "It is not so much that we are afraid of you. It is just that you were so cold that we didn't know how to approach you."

"I am sorry." said Parvati "In my own way I am as socially challenged as my brother Ranma." Parvati chuckled sounding like Pai, "His father felt that social interaction was a waste of time and I am afraid that I had the same baka idea though for different reasons. When you live forever you tend to harden yourself against the fact that everyone outside your people will grow old and die in from your prospective a pathetically short time. Of course when we felt that we had become too cold we would look for the Ningen No Zou to become human." Parvati got a stunned look on her face and then burst out laughing. "I just remembered, the humanization process requires three Sanjiyan Unkara. And we call Genma Baka-sama." Parvati said as she turned the hot water off and the girl watched as the sign of Wu appeared. "Thank you for helping sister Parvati." said Pai hugging the girl, "She was really depressed today. I have to go get dressed for next class. See you later."

Ranko sat on the bench with her head cocked to one side, "How did it go?" she asked as Pai finished drying off.

Pai smiled dressing quickly, "Better than I expected. I thought for sure the girl would back away when she found it was my sister and not me she was talking to. Thank you, Ukyo for idea."

Ukyo smiled, "You're welcome, sister. I knew that opening up would help Parvati start making new friends."

"Aloha, students of Furinkan High School. This is your Principal the Big Kahuna." came a voice over the loud speaker. "Today we will begin by everybody getting a bowl cut. Tomorrow the new uniform code goes into effect so wear those Hawaiian shirts proudly." The voice went on with each new rule crazier than the last.

Pai's normally happy face got cold and if not for the mark of Wu on her forehead you would have sworn you were looking at Parvati. "Lesser Cha-Lieh-Chong Shi-Yao-Chong Shou-Rin revised." Pai said causing a Ki based Shou-Rin to appear. Pai then scribbled something on a piece of paper and attaching it the creature whispered in the thing's ear. It then ran off.

Pai giggled as she, Ranko, and Ukyo waited for the next teacher, "This should be fun."

"And next Thursday all girls will attend swimming class in Hawaiian style swimming suits. Huh what is this? To: the Big Kahuna From: Pai, sister to the Hindu goddess Parvati. Even I have my limits. Enjoy." Everyone then heard an explosion over the loudspeaker. "Minor addendum hair cutting will be delayed as the Big Kahuna needs to take a nap." then came the sound of somebody hitting the floor.

"How big a Ki based Shi-Yao-Chong you give the Big Kahuna?"

Pai giggled "Enough that he will be out for rest of day."

"Well that takes care of today's problem." commented Ranko. "What about tomorrow?"

Pai giggled again, "Don't worry sister Pavati got all kinds of fun things for Big Kahuna if he insists on being baka."

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Lunch at Juubangia Junior High School saw Usagi walking to a tree with her friends Ami and Makoto. After sitting down they opened their lunches. "It's really weird." said Usagi between bites, "Ever since I did that 'Sanjiyan Unkara power make up' thing I seem to view our battles more critically and I don't think the power left me either."

Ami looked at Usagi, "So on this new transformation, you said you felt stronger and your senses were better in it?"

Usagi nodded, "But that is not the troubling part. Even after I powered down I still felt that way. I even woke up for school _two hours_ early today. I keep feeling like I could summon any of those oni we saw at the Tendo Dojo as allies in a battle."

"The power of the founders of the Moon Kingdom." Makoto commented thoughtfully, "What Luna have to say?"

"Not much other that I shouldn't fool around with things I don't understand. I pointed out to that silly cat that is basically what we have been during as Sailor Senshi." Ami and Makoto got a little concerned as Usagi's voice got a little colder and harder, "It not like anybody is giving us a guidebook on these monsters we're fighting. As a result we throw what we have at the thing and hope it works. Like that worked _real_ well against Queen Beryl. If not for the Ginzuishou you would all be dead."

"Mother what is happening to you?" asked a familiar voice.

The three turned to see Black Lady standing near them. Beside her was a man in a grey outfit.

"Hello daughter. Who's your friend?" asked Usagi.

"Prince Demando. The leader of the Black Moon Family." Black Lady said.

Usagi smiled weakly, "Hello, my future self really messed up didn't she?" sighing Usagi frowned, "I just realized doesn't that mean that somewhere down the line we are going to have to fight her to liberate all of Earth from her well meaning but totally misguided rule?"

"Hopefully it won't come to that." said a very disheveled Sailor Pluto.

"Puu, you look horrid," commented Black Lady.

"With good reason. I have been struggling with this era's Time Gates to try and see something _stable_ of Nerima 's future in this timeline. I think hitting myself in the head with a hammer couldn't have given me more of a headache then what messing with those Gates for the last four straight hours did."

Ami looked at Pluto curiously, "I am not sure I understand the problem."

Sailor Pluto sat down, "From what I understand from Setsuna the Time Gates are like a radio--each possible timeline is like a radio station. Just like a radio where you are, what radio band you have selected, and where in that band you are looking in determines what stations you pick up."

Ami nodded, "I understand. There are certain locations where you get the signal from two radio stations and as a result cannot really make out anything from either."

Sailor Pluto looked down, "Only in this case it is more like 20 to 30 stations all coming in at one setting. It is a real mess."

Everybody was startled by a little harpy like creature that flew down,landed next to Usagi and started chirping at her. Usagi nodded "You found another disruption in the flow of spirit energy in this part of Tokyo, Takuhi?" The harpy chirped again and Usagi turned to Sailor Pluto, "Sailor Pluto there seems to be a build up in spirit energy akin to type used by the Makaiju. I think we are going to have a visit from one of their collectors soon."

Sailor Pluto looked at the little Takuhi, "Usagi what is that?"

"It is a Takuhi. Very effective at covering large areas and sensing changes in the spirit field that summonings produce." Usagi brought up her arm and the Takuhi jumped up on in making her look like a falconer. "Takuhi go to the Furinkan High School and tell Setsuna that we may have a energy draining demon soon." Usagi said swinging up her arm causing the Takuhi to fly into the sky.

"Would somebody please explain to me what just happened?" asked Prince Demando, "Like when did Sailor Moon gain the power to talk to oni?"

"It has something to do mother tapping into the Moon Kingdom founders' powers yesterday," said Black Lady.

"I can't bring the Time Gates to me like my counterpart Setsuna can so could you explain just what happened?" asked Sailor Pluto looking up after the harpy.

"Well according to mother it all began with a crystal stealing daemon showing up..."

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Setsuna had already planned on taking a half day off to address part of future she had told Ranma about. With Yugi still on the road to becoming a master Duelist this left Maximilian Pegasus himself to deal with. Problem was her future self had been very vague about how Yugi would weaken Pharaoh 90 via these other minions it had so she had no idea on how to bring up the problem with Pegasus. The one thing her futureself _had_ been clear on was not to interfere with events on Duelist Kingdom Island no matter what she felt there.

Through the Time Gates Duelist Kingdom Island had always radiated a dark foreboding magic but it was nothing to what Setsuna felt once she got there. If that was not bad enough the closer she got to the Castle on the hill the worse it got. She then felt something trying to break through the mental defenses her mother had taught her. The plan was that her arriving in her demon form would perk the man's interest and they could work out some sort of agreement, but now Setsuna was wondering if that was a good idea. Shrugging her shoulders Setsuna decided that even with her mother's people involved the Senshi were going to need help and right now Maximilian Pegasus was it.

Maximilian Pegasus looked at his monitors intently dressed in the fine red business suit that had practically become a trademark for the man. The woman he was looking at was obviously not human and her ability to shield her mind from his Millennium Eye interested him. He watched as the woman entered the room. "Greetings, my dear, welcome to Duelist Kingdom."

"I am Setsuna the Time Guardian, and I need your help to save the world from destruction," said the woman as she leaned on her staff.

Pegasus raised his left eyebrow at that. "I am impressed that you think that little old me could help save the world."

Setsuna frowned, "Cut the act and crap Pegasus. I can sense the magic that nearly saturates this island even I am not a martial artist like Ranma. My futureself may have said not to interfere with your plans so that Yugi would be able to weaken Pharaoh 90, but that future just got thrown out the window as that _thing_ has started its effort at wiping out all life on Earth nearly a year earlier than it was supposed to. Right now you are the only one with enough knowledge and skill in what my futureself called the ShadowRealm to be of any help right now."

Pegasus frowned his right eye narrowing, "What do you know of the ShadowRealm?"

"Other than from the way it interferes with the Time Gates that it like the magic of the Silver Millennium is somehow related to the Sanjiyan Unkara, not much," admitted Setsuna.

Pegasus blinked, "You mean the Sanjiyan Unkara really exist? I read stories about them but I dismissed them as just that."

"Oh they exist alright; my mother was one. Their immortality, eternal youth, and magical power resulted in their small tribes being portrayed as pantheons of deities by the locals." Setsuna then scowled, "Not that made them wise. For instance my mother charged me with the protection of a magical time machine with very little instruction on how the blasted thing works."

Pegasus slowly stood up, "A magical time machine? You can really travel though time?"

"Yes, but right now the Time Gates are quite useless in seeing this world's future, though the can still see the now impossible future my older self came from. Seems time is actually a branching tree so you cannot change yesterday and have it effect the present. So I am stuck keeping tabs on a me from an 1,000 years hence from a future that will never be."

"My wife died years ago..." began Pegasus.

"I cannot save her Pegasus. I cannot change what was and effect what is." Setsuna said softly.

"I was actually thinking about asking you bring her back to life." Pegasus tapped his Eye, "This allows me to see her soul but I need the other items and Kabia Corperation's hologramic technology to truly return her to me."

Setsuna frowned "In their final battle with Queen Beryl the Sailor Senshi were killed and Sailor Moon mortally wounded. She used the Ginzuishou to return them all to life but the way she worded her wish also made them forget their actions as Sailor Senshi until this situation developed." Setsuna looked at Pegasus her eyes hard, "Your request is within our power to grant but the problem is fully understanding our magic items and magical powers was not exactly on my mother training agenda."

Pegasus nodded, "So you have the power but not the knowledge."

"Right now, no. But some friends of mine have better understanding of their power than I do. Given their learning curve in a few days we should have something to offer you."

"How will I know who these friends are and how to contact them?"

"Don't worry, I will provide the information when we are ready. Unlike me, you will not be going into this with your eye closed."

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Nodoka opened her eyes. Kami-sama she had had the most horrible nightmare. She had dreamed that everything she had heard about Nerima was true and then some. Her son turned into a girl, there were kami and oni there and her son either was related to them or had them as teachers, her husband was summoning oni as part of some insane martial arts training, and his friend Soun was now a female kami.

Nodoka wondered just what she had eaten the day before to produce such a vivid nightmare. Stumbling to her feet Nodoka realized she was in her kimono followed by the fact this was not her room. Looking over at a clock on the nightstand she saw that school had ended just a while ago. Walking to the door she opened it and heard some familiar voices; she followed their sound into the hallway and started descending the stairs. At the halfway point she saw the girls she had met earlier today.

"Hello Mom." said Ranko turned to face the stairwell "Kasumi said that Pops and his friend Soun took things a little too fast and you fainted. Kasumi insisted that you wake up on your own given that it likely had been an emotional day for you."

Nodoka continued to descend the stairs, "Ranko? Ranma?" she asked tentatively.

"We are both here Mom. As we tried to explain we are two people in the same body." Ranko gestured "Please sit, its best if I explain this from when we met Pai."

Nodoka sat looking at the red head in front of her with nervous side glances to the demon Setsuna. "It all started when Pops took Ranma to a training ground called Jusenkyo..."

As Nodoka listened to Ranko's story her face changed from one emotion to the next. There was pride over Ranma's forcing of Genma into adopting Pai, Parvati, and her into the Saotome clan. Anger at the encounter with Sham Pu, happiness when Ranko's told how they roughed it and when Akane walked onto Ranma, Sham Pu, and Parvati bathing together. Surprise in the transformations of the Tendos into Sanjiyan Unkara and total disbelief when Ranko got to the part about US Army Brigadier General Hirohito Yamato.

Nodoka shook her head trying to clear it, "You are telling me that in other history Yamato Hirohito is a US Army Brigadier General?!" That's nuts!"

"No not nuts for _his_ world." said Sailor Pluto's voice from the back yard "Setsuna, I take it you heard about our new problem?

"Setsuna cocked her head to one side "Which one? That Pharaoh 90's servants the Witches 5 resumed energy collection as usual yesterday or that the Makaiju are going to cause problems in less a week's time?"

Nodoka looked from Sailor Pluto to Setsuna and back again, "Are you ladies related?"

"Yes but not the way you are thinking." Setsuna smiled, "We are different timeline versions of the same person. Something happened several months before Ranma ever got here that separated our histories."

"I fell like Alice when she stepped through the looking glass every time I see you." said Pluto to Setsuna, "I can't imagine turning myself into a demon."

Setsuna frowned, "I'll have you know that this wasn't the intended result. It was the interaction of the Pool of Drowned Sanjiyan Unkara with the Moon Kingdom magic that resulted in me becoming this. At least unlike you I accepted I messed up and _learn_ from it."

Pluto scowled, "And what have you learned?"

Setsuna smiled showing her fangs "That the obvious answer is not always the correct one when it comes to changes in history. For instance the divergence of our worlds is not when you think it is." Setsuna chuckled as she gestured and the Time Gates appeared. "You likely think it was when Ranma fell into that pool. Well you would be wrong." In the gates the image of a man badly hurt appeared.

Pai frowned, "Professor Fujji."

Setsuna nodded "It is interesting how a few months can change everything. In the timeline I saw for Pai and where Professor Fujji dies some six months earlier than this timeline. In the timeline where _Ranma_ fell in the spring of Drowned Girl it was three months earlier and in the timeline leading to your world it was one month earlier. So the entire shape of future for Pai, Ranma, and the Sailor Senshi all hung on the life of a relatively obscure man trekking through the Qinghai province of China.

Pluto blinked, "But _how_?"

The image in the Time Gates changed showing a man with features so strong and hard they might as well have been carved from stone. On his forehead could be seen the sign of Wu. "Even though none of you have never seen him before I think most of you can guess who this is."

"Let me guess," said Nabiki, "Siva's Wu, Benares?"

Setsuna nodded and leaned foreword, "Exactly. By the way, Pai, Madurai, the Wu of your sister's mother, managed to seal Benares in Wales for several centuries. Here too there are divergences. When breaks free of the seal is different in the three timelines as well though in his case it is by decades."

Pluto shook of the chill she was getting looking at this Benares. "Are you saying it is a combination of totally unrelated events coming together that made this timeline diverge from mine?"

Setsuna nodded, "Yes. I noticed something strange about Pai's other timeline when I first saw it. Benares gave Pai amnesia and allowed her to live a normal human life for four years. But this conflicted with the Crystal Tokyo timeline. Last night I went over that other timeline more carefully and found out that the battles Pharaoh 90 and Snow Princess Kaguya _never_ happened in it."

Again the image of the time gate shifted and a short stout Chinese man with a Fu Manchu mustache in a black overcoat wearing a black hat and dark tinted glasses appeared. "Meet the reason, Choukai, Benares' right hand man. Choukai is exactly what he looks like: a scummy slimy creep. For some reason in that other world Benares had him kill the entire Tomoe family and Snow Princess Kaguya while Pai was living her human life."

Again the image changed. Choukai pulled out what looked like a Shinto ward and blasted Yakumo across a cave with it. "Choukai is no slouch when it comes to Sanjiyan Ward magic. In fact when I explored a timeline where the Sailor Senshi of that world fought him I found that he slaughtered them with ease." The image was now of Choukai standing among the broken bodies of the Sailor Senshi gloating.

Pluto stammered as she looked at the image in front of her, "But that didn't happen. It won't happened," she said softly.

"Won't it?" said Akane angrily "Haven't you been paying attention Sailor Peabrain? Benares is Wu. He is immortal. It could take 100 years, even a 1000 years as they are all the same to him. For all we know he could be this Wiseman character who has all but trashed your Crystal Tokyo."

Setsuna frowned slightly, "Now _there_ is a nasty thought. But from what Black Lady told us Wiseman doesn't fit Benares' slow chess like style. However it _does_ fit the way Choukai tended to do things in the other timeline."

Pluto paled as the blood drained from her face. She stared at the image of Choukai gloating over the bodies of the dead Sailor Senshi. "It can't be."

Setsuna shook her head. "That is what is also different about us. I _will_ accept the ugly possibility that Choukai is Wiseman. If he is that makes Wiseman all the more dangerous and that makes the meeting with the Black Moon family in two days all the more imperative."

Akane looked at the image shuddering as she knew that in least one world the event shown had actually happened, "Wouldn't Choukai being Wiseman mean that Benares is the one really behind the Black Moon Family's actions?"

Setsuna nodded, "It would fit the way Benares uses Choukai. Pluto, Benares is totally unlike any foe the Sailor Senshi have ever fought. All our other foes were going for quick results. Benares as an unkillable immortal by contrast can take as much time as possible. The whole Wiseman/Black Moon Family situation could be a distraction from whatever he is really doing."

"Trying to wake up Siva." said Pai tensely. "It took nearly all of Hindu Sanjiyan Unkara to shut that madman down last time. Somehow Pai doubt that five reincarnated Sanjiyan Unkara that don't even know what they really are are going to have much chance."

Pluto stood shaking like a leaf and disappeared. Setsuna was visibly tense. "Odds are that baka is going to find Uranus and Neptune and do something really stupid."

"Who is going to do something stupid?" asked Genma as he and Pendragon stepped into the house. Nodoka winced as see saw the welts and bruises on the faces of both Pendragon and Genma. Genma's eyes narrowed at the image in the Time Gates and while he studied it Pendragon picked up the scabbard and buckled it on Genma. Nodoka took an sharp intake of breath as smoke rose from the welts and bruises and she saw them heal before her eyes. Pendragon them removed the scabbard and put it on and Nodoka saw the same thing happen with Pendragon.

Genma turned to Setsuna, "Is this an image of our most likely future, Meiou-san?"

"No, Genma, it is an image of a path not taken." Setsuna puzzled slightly at Genma calling her Meiou-san. Did Genma consider her and equal or was in typical fashion thinking of her as an inferior?

"But just as you can cross forests to take the path you originally chose not to take it could still be a destination. Why else even bother showing it?" Genma said looking back at the image.

Setsuna blinked. That Sailor Pluto was still blundering along like Genma didn't surprise her. Genma grasping insights that Pluto was missing however _did_. Obviously something had grabbed Genma's attention like a vise and as a result he was treating this like Ranma's training; only unlike the training with his child Genma was looking before he went off and did something. "How long?" Genma asked.

"Two years." Setsuna replied. "His name is Choukai and he is the right hand man to Benares."

"Benares. Kaiyanwang's Wu. I assume this Choukai uses magic to attack with," said Genma.

Now Genma was totally spooking Setsuna. He was talking like Pluto. "Yes. But it is not gesture magic like Sanjiyan Unkara and their Wu use. It is something called Sanjiyan Ward magic. I think Shintoism is derived from it."

"The Sazan Ryu talks about Sanjiyan Ward magic. Don't worry, Kasumi, I'll help clean up." said Genma as he reached into his Gi. Pulling out what looked like a Shinto ward Genma threw it at Pai.

Pai reacted by pointing at the paper, "Kuan-Yaa revised." she said blasting the paper to ash. "Pops-Sensei what was that?" Pai asked.

"Something that produces much the same results as being gored by a Tou-Chao." Genma reached in to his Gi and pulled out another ward. "Tonight, Pai, you and Ranko are going learn how to use and defend against Sanjiyan Ward magic." Genma than smiled as Yakumo opened the back door, "Hello, Yakumo. Think fast." Yakumo looked down at the ward now on his chest that promptly exploded sending him back into the yard and blood onto the floor. Genma put his hand to his head, "Should have known he would have just stood there. Kasumi, where is the mop and bucket? I have some blood to clean off your floor."

"What in the name of all that is holy did you just do?!" asked Nodoka standing to face her husband drawing her sword.

"Teaching Yakumo that a Wu should always be prepared for the unexpected." commented Pai in her usual happy voice "Good thing Pops-Sensei aimed for the chest. Blasting Yakumo's head off like yesterday would have really made a mess."

"Pops, Pai, I don't think Mom has fully grasped just what immortal and indestructible mean as far as Wu are concerned." said Ranko her head down in her arms while Ranma was mentally using what few choice words he knew to describe Genma's latest stunt.

Nodoka simply stood looking at her husband until she heard a sound from the back door. She looked over and saw Yakumo standing with smoke coming out of the hole in his chest. Slowly the hole closed up until the only evidence that Yakumo had been blasted was the head sized hole in his shirt. Nodoka blinked as her mind tried to grasp what had happened. Giving up her mind latched on the fact she had adopted daughters and within one of them was her son Ranma. "Ranko, when will I be able to talk regularly to Ranma?" she said.

"In two days. That is when we exchange for the week." Ranko smiled as Kasumi set out some more tea and pointed out the mop and bucket to Genma "I am glad that you have accepted the fact that Ranma and I are two separate people."

Nodoka smiled sitting back down, "Genma explained it to me earlier today. I was wondering. Is there somewhere here I can stay? I would like to be able to spend as much time with my daughters and son as possible."

Soun smiled, "Of course. You can stay in my room. I need to rough it a bit so as to build up my stamina. Besides most of the oni are too big to stay in the house."

Nodoka picked up her teacup. "Ranko, I was wondering what do you and Ranma do when your body sleeps?'

"We met each other in a dreamscape. Sometimes it is to perfect a new technique one of us has learned but most recently it has been simply to talk so we can get to know each other as brother and sister." Ranko said sipping her tea.

"I trust your instructions on just what a woman wants from a man among men have been enjoyable."

'Ranko, our mother didn't just imply what I think she just did?' Ranma nervously asked mentally. Ranko chuckled "Ranma don't be silly. I am sure Mom's definition of a man among men does not include making love to your own sister."

Nodoka spit out her tea "SAY WHAT?!" she exclaimed "Why on Earth did my son even think such a thing?!" Nodoka said shocked.

"My fault really." said Ranko sheepishly "One of the things Pops always taught was to keep who ever you were fighting off balance physically or mentally. I found the quickest way to do that with Ranma was to act as if he was so much a man among man that I his own sister wanted to have sex with him. Ranma by contrast found that my fear of being rejected was my weak point." Ranko sighed, "After a partially nasty mental battle we realized that we were being in fact very cruel to each other. We have been repairing the emotional damage we did to each other ever since."

Nodoka frowned "I see. Why did either of you go to such extremes in the first place?"

"Because Pops effectively told Ranma and me if we weren't the best we were nothing." Ranko smiled "Don't worry Pops knows better now."

"Indeed." said Genma as he pulled out yet another ward out of his Gi, "There will always be someone better out there; it is just a matter of becoming better than they are as fast as possible."

Ranko narrowed her eyes. "Mom, as much as I see you want to pound Pops I recommend you forget it. That ward he is holding has much the same aura as a Shi-Yao-Chong and I suspect that it has much the same effect."

"Of course. Why take minutes to wear out a foe when you can do it in a few seconds by draining their strength." Genma frowned looking at the ward in his hand "Pity they are so easily destroyed they would have been the ideal thing to use against the Master."

Ranko sighed and started rubbing her head, "Let me guess, Master Freakshow has a distance attack."

"Yes. Little bombs he would throw out. It has been a while but I think they were on par with a Cha-Lieh-Chong."

Yakumo slid down the door, "There is another crazy out there that has little exploding bugs?"

Genma shook his head "No. The Master's bombs were quite earthly."

As Setsuna nodded the image in the Time Gates shifted again. Here it was hard to see what was going on as there was a gray mist everywhere. Slowly the image of a woman standing in front of what looked like the Time Gates became visible. The image cleared up enough that it was clear that the woman was Sailor Pluto. Setsuna slowly stood up, "She didn't. She wouldn't. I could have **not** have been _that_ stupid."

Sailor Pluto narrowed her eyes and she lowered the Time Staff holding it much like a spear. "No one may use the Time Gate without my permission" "Not even an alternative version of yourself?" came the reply as Sailor Pluto stepped through the mist. Time Gate Pluto frowned "Why are you here?" "To warn you. I know who Wiseman is! He is someone called Choukai. He will kill the Sailor Senshi of your time. Forget about the Black Moon Family; they cannot change history. Stop Choukai!"

"Clever ploy." Time Gate Pluto said raising her time staff "But a failed one impostor."

"It's not a ploy and I am no impostor. I've seen that future." Visitor Pluto said dodging her counterpart's swing.

"Death Scream!" yelled Time Gate Pluto.

"No! uh Shi-Yao-Chong?" visitor Pluto stammered causing the Death Scream to be expended on the summoned creature.

"How?" stammered Time Gate Pluto.

"Our mother's power. The power of the founders of the Moon Kingdom. The power of the Sanjiyan Unkara."

"No. No! NOOOOOOOO!" screamed Time Gate Pluto tears running down her face as she swung the Time Staff again.

Setsuna gasped at what she was seeing, "No, you baka, don't summon your Time Staff to block hers. There is no telling what will happened if those two staffs touch."

As the two staffs touched the image in the Time Gates went white then black followed by Setsuna expressing her feelings on the matter to the heavens, "PLUTO NO BAKA!"

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	17. Chap 17 Leinster's Equation

Chap 17 Leinster's Equation

Ranma 1/2 is the creation of Rumiko Takahashi, 3x3 eyes (Sazan Eyes) is the creation of Yuzo Takada, Sailor Moon is the creation of Naoko Takeuchi. All are used without permission. This fan-fiction isn't intended for commercial use but is rather a tribute to Ranma 1/2, 3x3 Eyes, and Sailor Moon.

After about five minutes of struggling with the Time Gates Setsuna was stunned when they reactivated all on their own. Through them stepped and man and woman holding a demonized version of Sailor Pluto between them. The woman wore a tight fitting but skimpy outfit presumably so as not to interfere with her wings. On each of her shoulders sat three stars. By contrast the man wore a more traditional style military uniform. Gray in color Nabiki noted that the uniform had four stars and a shoulder patch that the emblem of a phoenix with the words Phoenix Luftwaffe around it. On the right lapel of the uniform were the letters SDR.

"Guten Tag. Excuse our arrival. I am Generalfeldmarschall Manfred Von Richthofen of the Saotome Deutsche Republik and this is Lieutenant Air General Kiema Von Richthofen of the Phoenix Mountain Empire. This poor woman stumbled into our world and quickly degenerated into near hysterics. After calming her down somewhat we decided to bring her home."

Sailor Pluto pulled herself from the grip of the two visitors and fell to her knees in front of Pai. "I jumped to the conclusion your sister's race was evil and blocked them from helping allowing Queen Beryl to turn my reality's solar system into a blood bath. Can you ever forgive me for distrusting my mother's people so?" Pluto blubbered tears streaming down her face.

Pai hugged the crying woman stroking her hair. "That all right many people make same mistake. Pai forgive you."

"Thank you. Thank you."

Manfred looked at Setsuna and frowned, "Who are you? You hold the Time Staff but you are not Sailor Nemesis."

Setsuna frowned, 'Sailor _Nemesis_?' "Does the name Sailor Pluto mean anything to you?"

"Ja, She was the precursor to Sailor Nemesis. She killed her self back in 1880," said Manfred.

Setsuna narrowed her eyes, 'Killed herself?! What did I see to result in that kind of response?' "Does the name Crystal Tokyo mean anything to you?"

Manfred looked Setsuna in the eye, "Ja, it is either the product of an idealistic Dummkopf or a fascist maniac depending on if the Nazis win or lose WWII. Thankfully the Nazi Party does not even exist in our world. Neo-Queen Serenity and Neo-Fuehrer Serenity, two sides of the same twisted coin in my view."

"I agree. They have both stamped out imagination, drive, and spirit in their respective futures," commented Kiema, "Those people do not live, they exist."

"What sort of people could one expect under a dictatorship? Strong people want a government with challenge where like martial arts there is a counter to ever action. The _true_ Democratic Republics of the West demonstrate this with the US and my own SDR being the best examples." Manfred said his eyes burning with the intense light of a total fanatic. "We must look our flaws squarely in the face and triumph over them."

"I know my dear husband." Kiema said frowning "To do less makes us weak and subject to destruction by subhuman idiots that preach drivel like racial, culture, and even spiritual purity. Bah. A race of clones would be totally pure but it would be simple to defeat; what took out one clone would take out all."

Nabiki coughed, "As much as I hate to spoil this moment I believe you had a reason coming here?"

Manfred laughed, "So right. Tendo Nabiki I presume? Sensei-sama was quite detailed in the description of your counterpart of his birth world. I am afraid it was not the most flattering description." he finished his eyes cold.

Nabiki smiling at Manfred opened her three eyes, "Most likely but as you can see I am not that Tendo Nabiki." Nodoka stiffened slightly at her first experience of the main distinguishing feature of the Sanjiyan Unkara.

Manfred smiled back, "The lady here mentioned something about you being a Sanjiyan Unkara in this world which I suspect has given you a broader picture of the world. It is welcome improvement." Manfred held up his hand, "As much as I would enjoy a battle of wits with you we have our own world to take care of. So I am going to have to spoil your fun and simply _give_ you the information you are looking for. In our world it is August 15, 1942. General Yamoto has just given one of the most stirring speeches I have every heard ending the war between Japan and the US. There is going to be a lot of emotional rebuilding though for everyone. There is already a new saying about Saotome Ranma."

"The nail that broke the hammer. The General Yamoto we met didn't correct Ukyo when she said 40 years ago for Japan's surrender so I figure the one we met was from roughly the equivalent of our present." Nabiki commented.

"Makes sense." Manfred said putting his arm around Kiema. "Setsuna, I trust you can take care of Guardian Pluto? I should warn you that despite calming her down she is...well let's just say quite a few students shy of a full dojo. Perhaps Sailor Moon can help her. As much as I would like to stay and learn more about your world our duty demands we return to our own world. Perhaps we will meet again. Goodbye and good luck." Manfred said as he and Kiema walked through the gate.

Guardian Pluto stopped crying and stood up. Walking to the back door she said "I think I will sleep out side with our oni friends." and whistling a tune walked out into the back yard.

Setsuna smiled, "Nodoka, what did you think of Manfred Von Richthofen?"

Nodoka returned the smile, "The strong take charge attitude and intensity of his personality. Definitely a man among men."

Setsuna frowned, "That makes it such a pity he was killed in our world at the end of the Great War in 1918."

Nodoka's jaw dropped and she looked back at the Time Gates. It finally dawned on her just what different paths of history really meant and that perhaps all variant histories _were_ possible even if some of them were totally wild.

Later that night in typical fashion Genma stumbled through the use of Sanjiyan Ward magic with Ranko, Pai, and Yakumo. At the end of the training they made a set of three different Wards best suited to their styles of fighting. Guardian Pluto told Akane and Nabiki of her days as a child of the Moon Kingdom and some of the interesting people she had met back then. Nodoka overheard and found this topic more to her liking and joined in. Later on Pai talked about all the people she had met on her 300 year journey. After a while Nodoka realized that despite her experiences Pai was very naive about the ways of the world and resolved to help her daughter in that regard. Setsuna put some alarms on her Time Gates in case Guardian Pluto woke up early and decided to do something else stupid and eventually everyone went to sleep. 1000 years in a now impossible future the Time Gates responded to the dreams of their protector by accessing several items including the Ginzuishou to make some desired changes.

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In Hiroshima Sakura woke up and smiled. Today was the day of the big test. She literally flew down the stairs to eat so she wouldn't be late her Takuhi right behind her. During breakfast her father would throw out the occasional question his wings draped back over his chair. Her mother nodded approvingly at Sakura'a replies with the pride clear in her three eyes. After hugging her parents Sakura walked to school and was quickly joined by her friends Ryoko and Eric. Ryoko commented how nervous she was her black ebony wings twitching. Sakura smiled and told her friend not to be so nervous, Eric laughed his fangs catching in the early morning light a stark contrast to his blue skin and said it was only natural to be nervous but the trick was to turn that to your advantage. Ryoko laughed as they continued to school.

Principal Mordrid pulled out his watch the morning light playing off his delicate features making his tapered ears look longer. He smiled seeing Sakura, Ryoko, and Eric. They were his best students this year which meant their testing would be an inspiration for the other students. He was happy that Sakura had fellow immortals as friends. Even at 1000 years a High Elf's lifespan was nothing to a Demon-Sanjiyan Unkara; he hoped his Sanjiyan Unkara wife would not morn too much when he finally passed way. Of course there were the usual silly rumors that floated around when you had a Lust Demon or Succubi as friends. Though compared to when he went to school some 35 years ago the rumors regarding Sakura were quite mild. Smiling he fired a ki blast in the air signaling that there were only 10 minutes left before school started. Closing his watch Principal Mordrid walked into his school.

Outside Hiroshima there were a couple of female Demon Hunters trying to figure out what had happened. One moment they have been fighting your typical run of the mill 'I want to ravish women' perverted demon and the next moment he ran off into the city yelling something about his brothers. When they used their powers on the city they were stunned. There was still a population of 2 million in it but nearly all of it was _not_ human. A good proportion were a whole host of different demon types mixed in with very magical beings they couldn't even begin to identify. The older woman sat down and wondered when Rod Serling was going to show up and explain just what in the world was going on.

Benares Kaiyanwang's Wu had been thinking along the same lines ever since the stories of a red headed Sanjiyan Unkara being seen in China had been brought to his attention. Then there were the reports of Sanjiyan Unkara being seen in Nerima while Pai was in Hong Kong but the descriptions of that Pai didn't match the ones he had. Then there were the pictures of Pai with the mark of Wu on her forehead. Now the Creatures in Darkness were telling him about the sudden appearance of thousands of Sanjiyan Unkara in both the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Everything kept pointing back to an obscure place called Jusenkyo in the Qinghai province of China as to where things had gotten out of hand. He decided that it was time to visit the place first hand and see what was going on there. Besides it was not as if anything there could hurt him.

---------------------------------

Emperor Hirohito woke to the muffled crying of a woman. Putting on a bathrobe he followed the sound to the bathroom. In it she found his wife Nagako crying her head in her hands saying "No. No." over and over again. "What is wrong Nagako?" he asked pulling her hands from her face. "I came in to wash my face with some cold water and I changed into this." Nagako said looking up. Hirohito gasped at what he saw. It was not so much seeing his wife as she looked some 50 years ago but the fact she had three eyes.

"What did I do to deserve to be turned into some sort of demon?" she cried.

"I don't know." Hirohito said as he put his hand into the sink to pull out the wash cloth. Hirohito suddenly found himself looking not at a hand but a black claw. Looking up into the mirror he saw the image of a black dragon looking back. "You changed too. What does it all mean?"

Unfolding his wings Hirohito noticed the letters USAF on the inside of the left wing and the familiar white star in a blue circle over three bars of red and white normally seen on US air planes on the right wing's inside. "I have no idea. Perhaps a nice hot soak will clear our both heads." he said in effort to show that Japanese bravery against adversity even if internally you were scared out of your ever loving mind.

Hirohito put his hand under the water as it warmed up and saw his claw turn back into a hand. Frowning he turned off the hot water and the moment the water got cold his hand became a claw again. "What ever it is seems to be related to the temperature of the water. Cold changes us in to the other forms and hot changes us back."

"Grandma grandpa look I have wings." giggled one of their granddaughters as she flew in.

Several hours later Hirohito was in his garden hoping that whatever kami had gone and done this to his family would at least show up and explain why. That he felt more conformable in this European black dragon form didn't help. "Hirohito", came his wife's shaky voice as she stepped into their private garden, "I found this in your clothes closet." she said holding up a uniform.

Hirohito blinked, "That is a WWII US Army brigadier general's dress uniform." suddenly feeling that the worst was yet to come.

"Yes and look whose uniform it is supposed to be." gesturing to the name tag.

Hirohito's eyes widened to the size of dinner plates as he read the tag aloud, "H. Yamato?!"

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Setsuna had set up the Time Gates to warn her of things or people coming through not for signals to various magical items already in this timeline. Also most of the changes in Japan had happened early in the morning and so too late for the morning paper. Furthermore while the Tendo household did have a TV it hadn't see recent use during the morning. This was how everyone in the Tendo household remained totally ignorant of the fact that a few portions of Japan had hopped the Bullet Train to the Twilight Zone. Of course eventually it would become clear that something was way wrong and ironically the news would come from a person who lived in his own fantasy world.

'Sanjiyan Unkara or as the Chinese call them Divine Demon.' That statement by Pai echoed in Kuno's brain as did Pai's statement about being related by blood to none other than Amaterasu herself. Kuno sighed, he now understood why Pai had called Amaterasu Onikami rather than Omikami; it had not been a mistake nor simply acknowledging Amaterasu's kinship to the Sanjiyan Unkara. Rather it had been a warning to him. Onikami, Oni Kami, Demon Divine. Reward _and_ punishment. Being beloved by these kami did not mean beloved by _all_ kami. Kuno approached the kami who loved him so dearly to ask for their aid.

"Great, here comes the amazing True Blunder. Doesn't he get the point?" Akane asked annoyed.

"For once I don't think that is why he is coming toward us. Look at his aura, Akane."

"It's challenging to do in human form, Ranko. Huh? There is none of the blue I normally see in his aura. It is a faint sickly orange. What emotion is orange?"

"I can answer that." said Ryoga folding both pairs of her arms. "It is depression, emotional pain, loneliness."

"My beloveds a great tragedy has befell the Blue Thunder." said Kuno.

"Hohohohoho. Only you would call what has happened to me a tragedy brother dear." everyone looked up. The voice, face, and outfit matched those of Kodachi but there were some major differences. Namely huge black wings coming out of her back, a six inch horn sticking out of her head, a four foot tail, and that her skin had a polished leather shine to it.

Akane narrowed her eyes, "Oh oh. We have a definite problem. She has the same magical aura about her we, Ryoga, and about every other person that has been in contact with Jusenkyo has."

"Wonderful, anybody have any idea what pool it is?"

Pai shook her head, "No neither of us have any idea. Other than that she has a demon aura about her."

"Ok Kuno. Just what happened?" asked Nabiki as Kodachi glided to the ground.

"The day started out normally. My twisted sister and I ate breakfast and then she went to take a cold shower as she always does. She emerged like this." Kuno said "Do you know what kami did this? My sister was bad enough before but this new form has made her even worse."

Ranko signed "I think this is the result of Jusenkyo. Good news is warm water will turn her back, bad news it will only last until she gets hit with cold water again."

"Why did this Jusenkyo do this?"

Pai shook her head "Kuno not understand. Jusenkyo not person but place filled with very powerful and dangerous magic. Older than all of my family combined. What I do not understand is how. Sister Parvati only get water from one pool; where this other pool water come from?"

"No way to know right now. I think I would be a good idea to look for other traces of Jusenkyo to see if there are other problems." said Nabiki

Setsuna nodded. "There are times I am glad this form needs only two hours of sleep. Though there goes lunch."

"But beloveds is there not a permanent cure?" asked Kuno looking at his sister with a slight tinge of fear in his face.

'Ranko, I think to a point we should be upfront with Kuno.' Ranma said mentally, 'From what happened with Pendragon it is clear he has access to a skilled Shinto priest and we have no idea on exactly how a Shinto ward will interact with Jusenkyo magic. I say we don't find out.'

Ranko frowned, the idea had merit. Besides thanks to what had happened to his sister Kuno had already been pulled into a world far beyond any normal person's understanding, but if there was one thing Kuno was not it was normal. "Setsuna's mother was Sanjiyan Unkara her father human. She belonged to a people who long ago were instructed in the ways of a form of Sanjiyan Unkara magic. It was the interaction between that magic and Jusenkyo that gave her the demon form you see now."

Kuno nodded, "The Blue Thunder understands. If there was a permanent cure you would have used it on Setsuna-sensei." Kuno's eyes widened and he looked directly at Ranko. "Pendragon threw water on you and you _changed_ into Ranma. That was due to Jusenkyo wasn't it?"

Ranko smiled sadly, "Yes Kuno. That was due to Jusenkyo."

Kuno closed his eyes, "The magic of this Jusenkyo has forced you and your brother to share the same body." Kuno opened his eyes and sadly looked at Setsuna "And using other magic to fight Jusenkyo only makes things worse."

Kodachi eyed Ranko, "So my love Ranma shares his body with you." Kodachi threw back her head and laughed, "Don't worry Ranma the Black Rose is as flexible in mind as she is in body."

Kuno looked at his sister in disgust "There is a difference between flexible and twisted, sister dear. The Blue Thunder is perfectly willing to accept that the love of Ranko will mean sharing his bed with the women Ranma chooses as his wife but the very idea that that woman could be you turns even the mighty Blue Thunder's stomach. Especially given that you look better suited to the realms of the Hells than with a heavenly being such as Ranko or Akane."

'Share his bed?!' Ranma said mentally in a mild panic.

Ranko mentally grumbled, 'Even when he gets a large portion of the truth right he still hangs on to the idea that Akane and I are in love with him.' Ranko coughed "I do believe we have more important things to do. Like classes to attend."

Kodachi laughed again, "How right you are. Give Parvati my regards, Pai." Kodachi then spread her wings and took off into the sky.

Kuno nodded looking up after his sister, "Of course. The time will also allow us to plan on how deal with my twisted sister and my father."

"Aloha, students. You are just in time for your hair cut." said Kuno Kocho brandishing a large pair of clippers.

Pai walked up to Kocho and smiled "Big Kahuna silly. Pai like hair way it is." Pai gestured "Huu-Yao-Chichiu." Kocho looked at the little spider that appeared. Next thing he knew he was in a big messy and sticky web. "Seems Big Kahuna it all tied up. Pai talk to you later. Do stick around." Pai said giggling as Nabiki shook her head.

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Genma was scratching his head and thumbing through the Sazan Ryu manual trying to figure out why the Ningen No Zou was dimly glowing. In a far away temple the Manganmaru monk was doing much the same thing regarding the Manganmaru sword and his records. There was no way either of them could know that Time Gates of one Crystal Tokyo future was the ultimate cause. Ironically Genma would have recognized the method of the Time Gates as one of his one: if you can't do something yourself get someone (or in this case something) else to do it for you. On their own there was no way the Time Gates could even begin to reshape things to fit Guardian Pluto's dream but they could send signals to varies items that to some limited degree did have the ability. The main problem was while the Ningen No Zou, Manganmaru, and Ginzuishou were powerful, used this way they could not change everything at once and their range was limited. So the Time Gates had to instruct changes to be done piecemeal and even then they couldn't change the nation of Japan much less the entire world. In fact the Time Gates were finally receiving resistance from the various magic items which was the cause of the glows Genma and the Manganmaru monk had seen. So reluctantly the Time Gates stopped accessing the three items in the past and waited for Guardian Pluto to give it some different instructions. When the glows faded Genma and the Manganmaru monk shrugged and went back to what they were doing the little incident quickly forgotten.

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Dr Tofu looked up from his desk. "Ah, Nabiki, can I help you?"

"What can you tell me about multiple personalities?" Nabiki asked

Dr Tofu raised his eyebrows. "Mind if I ask what prompted this interest? I know about Pai and Parvati as well as Ranma and Ranko..."

"It has to do with a question my sister Akane posed to Pai. Everything we have seen and I have read indicates that it is natural for a Sanjiyan Unkara to have two personalities." Nabiki chuckled a little "Even the Sanjiyan Unkara known to the Japanese as Omikami Amaterasu has a second personality: Pendragon Amaterasu. But we don't and neither does Shampoo. So I wanted to know when we were likely to start forming our second personalities."

Dr Tofu shifted and folded his hands under his chin. "The only information I have is regarding what is called Multiple Personality Disorder in humans. What few cases I know about all seem to have a common origin: really bad abuse during the childhood years."

Nabiki frowned, "Well from what Ranma told us his father was a somewhat a brutal taskmaster." her eyes widened, "Good heavens, something just occurred to me. Ranko commented about how much easier it was to learn and do martial arts with more than one personality. Pai also wondered why any martial artist would commit a flawed technique to paper. What if the true intention of the Neko-ken Genma found was to create Multiple Personality Disorder?"

"Hold on there, Nabiki; you are going way too fast for me. How about going over that a little slower beginning with just what _is_ the Neko-ken."

Nabiki sheepishly nodded "Sorry about that I guess the realization really rattled me. The Neko-ken involves digging a pit and filling it with starving cats. You than take the trainee usually about five years old and wrap them in fish. You then keep throwing them into the pit until they learn the technique. The only problem is that the trainee becomes so afraid of cats that they will think they are one to escape the fear when they encounter one."

Dr Tofu stared at Nabiki with a stunned expression his hands about the only thing keeping his jaw from hitting the table. "You have got to be kidding! What inhuman monster would even think of using such a training method?" Dr Tofu finally said in a voice so soft that to him is sounded like someone else was speaking.

"Ranma's father Genma is many things. Greedy, obsessive, and stupid but he is not an inhuman monster. Now very human baka-sama I will agree with. Though Kuno is even worse in his own little way." Nabiki gave Tofu a hard look, "For all his faults Genma is very useful in training Wu and with the Grandmaster of martial artist perverts coming in about a month we need all the help training our Wu as possible. Besides I came here to talk about our coming personalities not Ganma's training methods."

Tofu reached up and adjusted his glasses. "As I said the main cause of MPD seems to be due to really bad childhood abuse."

Nabiki frowned "That explains Ranma and Ranko and I guess the shock of having your fiancé go nuts and kill your people would explain Parvati and Pai. But that leaves Amaterasu and Oni. According to our legends the worse abuse she ever got was when her brother called her names and she was afraid that he might ravish her but that was long before her son Jimmu was born. By contrast Oni couldn't recall anything more than 120 years ago. Amaterasu remembered Commodore Perry's arrival but had no clue as to what happened to her fellow kami. How does she fit into your case study examples?"

Tofu frowned "The way you state it she doesn't. But that doesn't exclude an extremely traumatic experience that caused her form a new personality as a defense." Tofu looked at Nabiki "There is still a lot doctors don't know about MPD."

Nabiki nodded, "That would help explain why in some mythology like that of the Greeks and the Romans a particular kami would have wild personality shifts while a kami in Norse and Egyptian mythology is more or less consistent."

Tofu cocked his head to the side. "I don't understand what does those mythologies have to do with the Sanjiyan Unkara?"

Nabiki smiled in a manner that frightened Tofu a little. "To quote my father 'the Sanjiyan Unkara _are_ the Kami of the world'. Besides Pai commented about Hercules being an uncle and we saw that necklace Oni has faintly glow when she talked to Pai/Parvati so I know that at least part of the Greak-Roman and Japanese pantheons were made up of Sanjiyan Unkara."

Tofu paled, "You have any idea _what_ you are saying?"

"Perfectly, that is why you are going to keep this to yourself. My father also correctly pointed out that for all our power and immortality the Sanjiyan Unkara are still in the end _human._ The last thing I need is some collection of baka deciding I am a major kami and making offerings to me. Or worse building a temple or some such nonsense."

Tofu smiled "I see that knowing you are connected to major kami hasn't given you a god complex. That at least a good sign."

Nabiki smiled, "Part of the reason I set up my betting pools and all the rest was for the challenge to control events and people. If I let it out that I am part of a race that was the Hindu, Greek, and Japanese pantheons it would cause me to loose that challenge. What is the point of living forever if you are bored silly?"

Tofu simply shook his head, "And here I though you were doing something noble. I should have known better."

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Meiou Setsuna aka Guardian Pluto sat down in the councilor's office of Mugen Gakuen High School. Leafing through the book she had brought from the other timeline she waited for the two students she had called to her office to arrive. The door opened and she quickly hid the book and smiled at the two students standing in the doorway. "Ten'ou Haruka and Kaiou Michiru please come in and sit down." Setsuna gestured "I am sorry to have to call you like this but things have gotten to the point that we need to talk. I mean I can't very well keep leaving Sailors Uranus and Neptune in the dark can I?" she said picking up the Time Staff from the floor and setting it on her desk.

Michiru shifted nervously while Haruka nodded approvingly at Setsuna. "Sailor Pluto. So you decided to take a more active role in this situation."

Setsuna frowned, "I would hardly call what is going on a situation, Ten'ou Haruka. Full scale mess, unmitigated disaster, royal screw up all seem to better describe what is going on. Instead of gathering information like we should have been doing we go stumbling around like bulls in a China shop. As a result my counterpart of this time is now a demon, the Inners along with key members of the Sanjiyan Unkara race that helped found the Moon Kingdom think the Outers are a bunch of homicidal control freaks, and the Princess is on the verge of abandoning the magic of the Moon Kingdom in favor of the magic of the Sanjiyan Unkara."

Setsuna paused looking at the Time Staff, "Prince Demando and his Black Moon Family should have stayed home because the three of us have done more damage to the timestream in a week then he could have done in a year. I am resigned to the fact that _my_ Crystal Tokyo is no longer part of this future. Right now I am concerned with damage control so ensuring that there will be _a_ Crystal Tokyo as a possible future. Having the resources of the Sailor Scouts split over three different groups of foes is insane as it prevents us from focusing on defeating any one foe. Never mind that there are martial artist techniques and magic that could wipe us out. I am not thrilled with the idea of doing a parlay with Prince Demando but the fact of the matter he has no more desire for Pharaoh 90 to bring the Silence to this world than we do. Besides I have managed to find out that thanks to the changes made we are going to face new foes that didn't even appear in my timeline and the Senshi as they are now are nowhere able to handle them. We need all the help we can get. Doesn't mean we have to like this but to ensure that there is some sort of Crystal Tokyo for this world we are going to have to make some sort of compromise," Setsuna then smiled "I can solve one problem, being from the future of Crystal Tokyo I know exactly whose pure heart crystals contain the mirror, sword, and Garnet Rod. I also know how we can get them without killing the people with those heart crystals."

Haruka leaned forward "Whose pure heart crystals have the mirror, sword, and Garnet Rod?" she asked eagerly.

Setsuna smirked, "Why tell you when I can show you?" she said looking intently at Haruka, Suddenly a round globe came out of her chest which Setsuna quickly grabbed. As she brought it out from Haruka's chest the globe first changed into a pure heart crystal and then into a fine sword, "This is the Sword."

Michiru looked at the Sword in Setsuna's hand and then at Haruka's face. "Haruka, there is a mark on your forehead. It the same one I saw on Sailor Saturn."

"It is the mark of Wu. Normally it would mean that a Sanjiyan Unkara had pulled her soul out and merged it with theirs. I used the fact that my mother the original Sailor Pluto was Sanjiyan Unkara and my father human to allow me to pull her soul out to retrieve the item which resulted in her turning into a Wu." Pluto said handing the Sword back to Haruka, "What bothers me is the setting in my Staff is the Garnet Orb. It's not my soul, so who does it belong to? I believe with the magics the Sanjiyan Unkara have make obtaining the Grail redundant but I do want a back up option just in case. Now you won't have to hinder the return of pure heart crystals which should in turn put us in a more favorable light with the Inners."

Pluto then gestured and Sword turned back into a pure heart crystal which she held to Haruka's chest until it went back into her body and the mark on her forehead faded. "Staying Wu would only attract every 'I want to be immortal' supernatural loony in the area and we have got enough to fight as it is. See you at the meeting in two days and try to be a little nicer to the Inners. Have a good day."

Haruka and Michiru both got up and walked out of the room. They discussed Pluto's statements at length and neither one of them could fault her reasoning. So the best they could do now was to keep the foes at bay until the meeting when they would find out what was coming. If they had chosen to go back in they would have seen Pluto reading a book. The title _Phoenix das Feuer_ would not have stuck any cords of recognition with them but the author's name certainly would have. That combined with Pluto's comment would have sent a chill down the Outers spines if they had still been in the room. "A much better read than that Mein Kampf drivel your counterpart wrote in this timeline, sensei."

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Mercury was about as close a panic attack as she could get. Setsuna the Time Guardian had asked her to look for evidence of Jusenkyo and here she was during her lunch as Sailor Mercury relaying what she was seeing back to Setsuna. Hiroshima and Nagasaki were practically bathed in the magic; it was clear that very few of the some 3 million of those two cities were unaffected. There was a small pocket of readings in the royal palace indicating that a good portion of the family may had been affected as well. That was not what was giving Mercury the jitters it was the other readings she was getting. The demon readings were higher than anything she had seen and then there were the other magic readings that were nearly as powerful. Against this kind of power the Sailor Senshi were doomed.

Setsuna was having her own misgivings about the readings though for different reasons. What Mercury was given her matched the population breakdown for Hiroshima and Nagasaki for General Yamoto's timeline. The readings out of the palace also matched that world's timeline. What Setsuna couldn't figure out was how someone had bypassed her alarms on the Time Gates. She then got worried when the Time Gates said these people belonged to _this_ timeline. Suddenly an explanation flashed into her mind. "Great, now how do we deal with this?" she muttered to herself.

Those words were being echoed in the royal palace by Emperor Hirohito as the reports about what was had going on Hiroshima and Nagasaki came in. While the two cites looked like demon-monster central, the people didn't seem aggressive. In fact, they seemed to be much like an average Japanese city though there were some interesting culture differences. The most puzzling thing was that buildings damaged or destroyed in the atomic bombs blasts were now intact and undamaged.

Seemingly related to this was the history the people and libraries in those cities related didn't agree with what he knew as history but did agree with the books he now found in his own personal library. The attack on Pearl Harbor had been a total military disaster as he the Emperor had taken his family in exile to join the Americans in fighting the evil Prime Minister Shogun Tojo. To end the war he had used the most powerful nonlethal martial artist attack ever developed on Hiroshima and Nagasaki: the Oppenheimer Retributive Strike. In doing so he had destroyed the idea of the Japanese being racial, cultural, or spiritual pure but had given them gift of knowledge and power in return. To this day Emperor Hirohito was known as General Yamoto a living example of both Japan's greatest failing and her greatest achievement.

However compared to the history of Europe however the differences in Japan's history were mild. Hitler was the founder of a martial artist school called the Phoenix das Feuer Ryu and his mentor's wife was a member of the Sanjiyan Unkara who Hitler had woven into the whole Aryan Race concept. The Great War had been a stunning victory for Austria-Hungry. Before its end however the Kaiser had been overthrown when he had tried to move against the school forming the Saotome Deutsche Republik. After the signing of the Sanjiyan Treaty in 1919 several thousand Germans made a pilgrimage to a place in China called Jusenkyo.

Things basically got weird after that. Mussolini and the Italian army were crushed by 10,000 men and women who by all reports carried no guns, had no tanks, and flew no planes. Stalin in typical paranoid fashion reacted with one of his purges and then tried to acquire Poland as a bufferzone. Half a decade later Stalin and the USSR were a memory. The history after the war with Japan was mostly of a power struggle in Asia with the SDK and US troops under the command of General Yamoto trying their best to keep a lid on a badly fragmented region that seemingly produced one power crazed warlord after another.

The most disturbing thing was that the history Hirohito knew was also referenced. In 1946 Hitler had with a Sailor Nemesis cowrote something called _Unser Kampf_. The book was a vicious fanatical attack on every ideal talked about in _Mein Kampf_ citing events from the history Hirohito knew as examples. _Unser Kampf_ also promoted martial artist self discipline as the only way to keep true democratic republics strong. However the most troubling thing about book was its preface: "In the end my sensei Saotome Ranma didn't stop us from being fanatical or crazy, he just gave us something better to be fanatical and crazy about."

Hirohito frowned. In many respects he envied the Japan talked about in the books as it was far more powerful militarily and economically than his own. But the glue that held that Japan together was martial arts; ideals like racial, cultural, and even spiritual purity which in part kept his Japan from bursting as the seams were dismissed as the ramblings of subhuman baka. For some reason the Kami had transported parts of that other Japan here and now he Emperor Hirohito had the task of trying to mesh two cultures as different from each other as the East was from the West. In the end only one culture would dominate. Looking at the US army uniform draped over a chair and then at his own claws Emperor Hirohito realized it in all likelihood would not be his Japan that would prevail.

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Guardian Pluto didn't know why this had happened but she was happy as a clam. Something along the lines of General Yamoto's Japan was the perfect replacement for Crystal Tokyo. Sure there were going to be some growing problems but in 1000 years everything would be fine. Setsuna the Time Guardian by contrast was purple with rage. To her knowledge only one person could be _this_ stupid: Sailor Pluto. Of course with an infinity of possible futures there was no way to tell _which_ one of her counterparts had done this piece of idiocy. Worse she was not sure how or even if it could be reversed and Pegasus could view it as the promised message that they were ready to bring back his wife. Right now it was going to be damage control time until the meeting and they addressed this along with what ever else popped up. Hopefully it wouldn't be too much of a disaster.

At the Tendo Dojo, Nodoka and Amaterasu were wondering along with the rest of the nation just what in the world was going on as they watched the news. Hiroshima and Nagasaki were filled with a population of demons, kami, and who knew what else. Finally, Amaterasu reached up and turned off the TV set and sat back down. "Nodoka, would you like to see where I lived. We can go though my clothes and see if there is something beside this suit of armor I can wear."

Nodoka looked over and smiled, "I would be pleased. Certainly can't be any weirder than Japan right now."

"Our thoughts exactly."

"Can I come along?" Genma asked.

"Sure. Since it will be only the three of us in a ghost town there isn't too much trouble for you to get into." Amaterasu said.

"Now I know where Oni gets her razor sharp tongue from." Genma smiled.

Several hours later in Sazan, two woman could be heard screaming the phrase "GENMA NO BAKA!" The second shoe had dropped right on schedule.

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Ranko, her friends, and family came home to a scowling Nodoka. "Mom, what is wrong?"

"Amaterasu offered to take me to her world and help her sort through her clothes. We made the mistake of letting your father come along."

Ranko put her hand to her head her fingers touching her forehead while her thumb was on her chin, "What on earth could Pops find to mess up in a ghost town?"

"A ghost town where several castes of water from the pool of Drowned Female Sanjiyan Unkara were stored." said Nodoka her lips a thin line.

Pai scowled, "Pop-Sensei didn't force mother to become Sanjiyan Unkara? That was mother's choice."

Nodoka looked down, "No he didn't force me. He had the idea that he could better teach the Sazan Ryu if he was Sanjiyan Unkara."

Nabiki shook her head, "But Genma had already fell into the Pool of Drowned Panda. The mixing of the magic would be a bad idea as there would be no way to figure out what the result would be."

"That is why Oni tried to stop him. In the scuffle all of us got hit by the water."

Pai took on the look of a full thunderstorm and moved to the backyard, "Pop-Sensei-Baka-sama where are you? Pai have some choice training for you."

Looking up Pai saw what at first looked like a woman on one of the flying jaws. Pai then noticed what looked like black and white fur on her face and hands. The woman held a sign that said 'I am just a cute panda.'

Pai glared at the woman who dropped the sign and said, "You wouldn't hurt a fellow Sanjiyan Unkara would you?"

"GENMA PREPARE FOR PAIN." Pai screamed as she jumped up and proceeded to throw Genma around the backyard. Landing near the Koi pond Genma asked "Now, Pai, is that anyway to treat a Sanjiyan Unkara who is your father?" Pai smiled in a most unpleasant way, "Who said you were facing Pai, father? You got her so mad she simply stormed off into her mind and shoved me out here."

Genma backed away "Parvati? What you doing out? Pai is supposed to be the Wu!"

"What am I doing out? Being royally pissed. Here father let me show you a new technique I call the Ryoga Pretzel Special."

One could hear Genma make several statements from the resulting dust cloud "No, that doesn't bend like that." "Help." "Momma." Finally Parvati stopped the demonstration. "Baka-sama is not going to learn anything out cold." she grumbled. "I need some hot water. I hated it last time when Pai got this mad."

Ranko looked at the twitching twisted form and shook her head. "We put the castes there so we wouldn't have more Sanjiyan Unkara you baka. We are near our limits training the ones we already have."

Nodoka smiled slightly "Thankfully Amaterasu and Oni seemed to be immune to the water."

Ranko smiled sadly "They were immune because Amaterasu and Oni already were female Sanjiyan Unkara. Mom, how are you handling it?"

Nodoka frowned opening her third eye, "I really don't know. I haven't felt this full of energy since my youth. I see things differently through my third eye. Is this what Ranma went through?"

Ranko nodded, "Initially, then I formed out of all the parts of his mind that he had repressed because Pops said they were weak."

"If your worrying about having a little voice in your head don't." said Nabiki "I talked with Doctor Tofu. From what I gather multiple personalities are the result of a traumatic childhood or experience. Ranma, Parvati, and Amaterasu fit that pattern. We don't that is why none of us has formed another personality so far." Nabiki looked at Genma who was starting to wake up and trying painfully to untwist herself. "I think the Neko-ken Genma found was originally intended to create multiple personalities and somewhere along the line that fact was lost."

"Nabiki, that is nuts. What martial artist would want to intentionally drive his student crazy?" asked Genma as she pushed on her back.

"Someone who wanted the advantages of having more than one mind in one body, or perhaps someone who wanted a literal army of one."

"Sounds like someone who didn't have all the pages in their training manual." Genma looked at Parvati who glared back, "I know that my children think I am an idiot but even I realized that the Sazan Ryu was too dangerous to learn without a trained Sanjiyan Unkara. Even with Cologne's help Yakumo's training was going at a snail's pace; I thought becoming Sanjiyan Unkara would help. I thought since it was cold water that the pool of drowned female Sanjiyan Unkara would have simply replace the pool of drowned panda as long as I was in my warm water form."

Parvati nodded her gaze softening, "I have to admit, Pops, your line of logic does make sense." Parvati's gaze then hardened again "But don't think that let you off the hook with Mom. It was her choice to join the Sanjiyan Unkara not yours." Parvati smiled wickedly, "Besides as a Sanjiyan Unkara you won't tire as easily which means I can teach you more magic in a day's time."

Genma sighed, but considering what Parvati had just done to him it could have been worse. "We going to need it as parts of Japan have just gone nuts."

Parvati narrowed her eyes, "Explain, Pops, or should that be Mother when you are in this form?"

Genma gestured to the living room, "Turn on the TV. It has had nothing but what I am talking about on for hours."

Puzzled Parvati turned on the TV. She slowly sat down dumbfounded as the announcer talked about how the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were now almost entirely comprised of demons, kami, and dozens of other supernatural beings. She then talked about how the royal family now turned into a variety of supernatural beings. When they showed an earlier interview with of Empress Nagako with three eyes Parvati shot up out of her chair, grabbed Amaterasu who was now dressed in a kamono, dashed out of the room, jumped on a Fei-Oh and took off like a shot.

Setsuna blinked for a moment. "Now where in the world does she think she is going?"

A few moments later the announcer at the Palace was on the screen, "Two women riding a, I guess I would have to call it a giant tadpole demon have just shown up."

"Empress Nagako, Emperor Hirohito I am Princess Parvati IV known to the Hindus as Goddess Parvati. The Yamoto clan is related to me through the fellow Sanjiyan Unkara sitting behind me, Omikami Amaterasu. We need to talk."

A large black dragon rose from the Palace Empress Nagako straddling its neck. "Ominkami Amaterasu? Then you were brought here to help us." Empress Nagako gestured down to the dragon. "Some Kami has caused us to take these forms whenever we come in contact with cold water. Warm water changes us back. At least my husband turns into a noble dragon but I turn into a demon. "

Parvati rolled her head back and laughed, "You are still thinking like an uninformed mortal." Parvati then lowered her head and opened her third eye. "Just because you have a third eye doesn't mean you are a demon my dear."

Empress Nagako gasped her hands tightening their hold on her husband's neck scales. "You are a demon as well?! How can you be related to Amaterasu?"

Amaterasu at that point had a total emotional breakdown as her hands shot to her head as if in pain, "No. No brother leave me alone. I am not a three eyed freak. I am not a demon I am a kami. You say Kami are perfect but I am not perfect as I have three eyes. No one loves me because I am freak a demon? No matter what I call or how I present myself I will always be a weak barbarian outsider? No I am not weak I am strong. I am Amaterasu. But this Commodore Perry is not weak but he is an outsider. A round eyed demon. I am strong I am Oni." Amaterasu opened her third eye and looked at Parvati with a totally lost look in her eyes. "Please tell me what am I?" Amaterasu asked as she collapsed into a crying wretch.

"I should pound the both of you. You know how long it took us to make her forget her brother's comments after we got her out of that blasted cave?" came a familiar voice.

"Okuninushi. Was wondering when you were going to show up, again." Parvati said stroking Amaterasu's hair, "I would hardly blame me or even Empress Nagako for this. Instead of addressing this issue you swept it under the carpet. As a result it became an emotional burden waiting for the last straw. That last straw came over 130 years ago when I was wandering China and long before Empress Nagako was even born."

Grabbing Amaterasu's head Parvati looked right into the woman's tear streaked face. "Amaterasu, why does it have to be one or the other? Oni said it herself 'Light within the darkness. Darkness within the light' How we treat the mortal humans determines what role they assign us but in the end we are both Kami and Oni.

"I am Omikami Amaterasu _and_ Pendragon Amaterasu. I am divine. I am demonic. I am Sanjiyan Unkara." Amaterasu smiled "I think Pendragon and I need to work out a schedule like you and Pai have."

Parvati hugged Amaterasu laughing, "At least you two won't have to worry about rain clouds." Parvati turned her attention to Okuninushi, "Now listen to me. Amaterasu's emotional well being is dependent on you, your follow kami, and the mortals of this nation accepting the fact that she and many of you are Sanjiyan Unkara." Parvati turned to the camera crew on the ground. "I have no idea what is causing this but I can tell you this much. You can't deal with it by shoving your head under the covers and pretending everything is normal."

Parvati looked up and smiled at the Empress and Emperor, "Nagako, Hirohito, I would be pleased if you would come to the Tendo Dojo in two days time. We are going to have a meeting to determine some cause of action to deal with not only this situation but other forces out there bent on either conquering the world or laying waste to it."

"Saotome Parvati, we would like to stay here." Amaterasu said, "I think we need the emotional support of each other." Amaterasu then chuckled "Besides they need someone to show them where the Tendo Dojo is."

Parvati laughed as Amaterasu jumped down, "Yes they do. I got so excited that I forget that fact."

"You are wearing a European sword." Hirohito said in deep baritone voice.

Amaterasu looked down at the sword hanging from her hip, "It is Excalibur; the sword of King Arthur. Merlin himself willed it to me before he died." she said looking up.

"It seems we have a lot to talk about before this meeting." said Hirohito who even though his voice was soft it carried several blocks.

"That reminds me. If you have a personal guard leave them at home. Between all nine of the Sailor Senshi, eight Sanjiyan Unkara and their Wu, the Black Moon Family, and a few others it going to be crowded. Since this involves the spirit world I fully expect, you my dear Okuninushi, to be there. If you can, get those Shichi Fukujin to stop behaving like a mirror image of Hendrik van der Decken's ship the "Flying Dutchman" and get their wanderlust happy selves to the dojo meeting. The more Kami, Oni and heroes we have on this the easier it is going to be for everybody." Parvati said getting her Fei-Oh to turn around, "By the way, my dear, this is called a Fei-Oh not a giant flying tadpole demon." Parvati said as she took off into the sky like a shot.

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When she got back to the Tendo Dojo Parvati and everyone else started talking about the day's events.

Setsuna was mildly annoyed, "I understand why you did this, Parvati, but it is going to cause several of Ranma's challengers to show up earlier than in the other timeline."

Ranko looked at Setsuna with a concerned look "Anything major?"

"Fortunately no. While challenging to you in the other timeline with the added reserves of Ki and Chakra your Sanjiyan Unkara form has is going to make defeating them easier in this world. In a way that you are all Wu or Sanjiyan Unkara now will make defeating the masters of Martial Arts Dining simple; it is going to be fun watching them try to speed eat the finest Sanjiyan Unkara cooking has to offer." Setsuna said breaking into a rich deep laugh.

The rest of the day fell into the usual pattern of evening training. Genma and Guardian Pluto were pleased when Yakumo managed to avoid getting blasted by either of them. Then Genma asked Ryoga to help in some physical training and Yakumo became the Amazing Wu Pinball for the rest of the day. Sham Pu and Akane were having much better luck with Hotura but only because in a previous life she had trained in the Sazan Ryu. Her magical girl form even had 'muscle memory' but at times this proved to be a liability rather than an asset. Hotura would on occasion reach into her outfit as if to put out something. When her hand came out empty she would lose focus and get clocked by either Sham Pu or Akane. Sitting down the three of them figured that as Sailor Saturn Hotura had used a mixture of Moon Kingdom, Sanjiyan gesture, and Sanjiyan Ward magic. She was reflectively trying to pull out certain wards that simply where not there. Unfortunately the only allied person with knowledge of the wards was still learning them herself.

While not physical in nature Ranko and Pai's training was no less important. They were instructing Nabiki, Kasumi, Ukyo, and their mother on the art of Sanjiyan gesture magic. By the second spell Ranko knew something was wrong. Ukyo being tired she had expected and even planned for as Sanjiyan gesture magic was very fatiguing. But Nabiki, Kasumi, and her mother were in about as bad if not worse shape. The only thing Pai and Parvati could figure was that martial artist training further increased the reserves of Ki and Chakra a Sanjiyan Unkara had to draw on lengthening the amount of magic they could do before they exhausted themselves.

Ranko and Ranma were not thrilled with this news. They simply didn't not have the resources to train more Wu and building up Ki and Chakra reserves took time, something they didn't have a lot of. Pai pointed out that Sanjiyan Ward magic might be a viable option and that it was not like Nabiki, Kasumi, and her mother were totally unprotected as Akane had gotten a Wu who in a previous life had been well trained. When Pai pointed out Parvati's knowledge of Sanjiyan Ward magic was very poor Ranko said that meant that their best source of training was Pops. Pai pulled out her set of three wards, "We think that Pops should go with some basic Wards at this time. Definitely no long term summoning wards." Ranko nodded her head grinning, "Right besides we got enough Oni friends here to set up our own petting zoo as it is."

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[Author's note: Leinster was not a scientist but rather a sci-fi writer. His 1934 short story "Sidewise in Time" can be seen as the father of the alternate and parallel world travel and mixing themes.

Also the Shichi Fukujin are interesting in that they are actually from three different pantheons. Ebisu (kami of honest work) is from Japan, Daiukoku (kami of wealth), Benten (kami of romantic love), Bishamon (kami of war and treasure) are from India, while Fukurokuju (kami of wisdom), Jurojin (kami of longevity), and Hotei (kami of Contentment and Happiness) are from China.


	18. Chap 18 Too Much Too Early

Chap 18 Too Much, Too Early

Ranma 1/2 is the creation of Rumiko Takahashi, 3x3 eyes (Sazan Eyes) is the creation of Yuzo Takada, Sailor Moon is the creation of Naoko Takeuchi. All are used without permission. This fan-fiction isn't intended for commercial use but is rather a tribute to Ranma 1/2, 3x3 Eyes, and Sailor Moon.

Early morning found Genma in his hybrid panda Sanjiyan Unkara form laying out Sanjiyan Wards. "Let's see these are best suited for Kasumi, these are more Nabiki's speed, Hmm given my wife's sword skills I think altered versions of these two are in order. Now what can Ukyo use? No those are long term summoning wards so they're out. Oh-Shye-Fu-Thrown-Lin-Lon is too powerful to be used in any populated place. Ah these three look useful."

"You mean that you have picked up enough to go changing those spells, Oyaji?" asked Ranko looking over the table covered with Sanjiyan Wards.

"Only very minor changes in duration or function," Genma said drawing another Ward.

Ranko sat down, "Oh-Shye-Fu-Thrown-Lin-Lon. That is a Ward I haven't heard of. Still holding out on us Oyaji?"

"With good reason. From the description I'd say Oh-Shye-Fu-Thrown-Lin-Lon is on par with a block buster. That makes it far too dangerous to be ever used in a city," said Genma as she held up a Ward to the faint light.

"I guess we should revised our thinking that you are a total idiot then," said Pai in her usual happy voice.

Genma smirked putting the ward in a pile, "I must say you have got Pai's tone down perfectly and that is nice try at mimicking the mark of Wu with mascara. However, in your haste you forgot that images in a mirror are reversed, _Parvati_."

Parvati went over to the sink, ran the hot water and began washing off the mascara. "I take that was not all that gave me away," Parvati stated with a tone of humor in her voice.

"You and Pai have very distinct body languages. Yours is forceful powerful while Pai's is more fluid and graceful," Genma frowned at the Ward in her hand and focusing her ki caused it to burst into flame letting the ashes fall into a bowl. "Little too much power in that Rei-Syou," Genma commented.

"Pops, just how many of these things are you making for everyone?" Ranko asked.

"Just five of each Ward type," Genma said looking over a set of five wards, "These are about even in power as Chin-Kuu go," she said putting a 'H' on the back of each one in pencil.

Eventually everyone else came down and Genma proceeded to go through Sanjiyan Ward Magic 101. "A Sanjiyan Ward can be used one of two ways: you either throw it or you hold it in front of your face with the lettering facing away from you. To simplify things the hold Wards have the Roman letter 'H' on the back and the thrown have the letter 'T'. Kasumi, you get Shi-Yao-Chong to defend against any would be attacker and Huu-Yao-Chichiu to hold them fast. Nabiki you get a Rei-Syou to shock any attacker and a Chin-Kuu to reflect ranged attacks. Nodoka, you get a variant of Kuan-Yaa that turns into a sword and a Chin-Kuu as a shield. Ukyo, you get a Tei-Chin-Chii-Chii-Chon to reduce fatigue, a Huu-Yao-Chichiu to bind foes, and a limited version of a Tou-Chaoto for attacks."

Genma shifted nervously "As you have seen with my training with Yakumo the Wards are very powerful and therefore very dangerous if misused. That said against a skilled master of Sanjiyan magic these are only stop gaps to perform the Saotome Ryu Ogi."

"Basic translation they will give you enough time to run like crazy and hide until you can figure out a new plan," commented Ranko sarcastically.

"Actually in this case ran and hide so the more skilled can have a crack at the thing. In this case that means Cologne, Ranko, and Ranma for martial arts, Parvati for Sanjiyan gesture magic, and myself for Sanjiyan Ward magic such as it is," Genma slumped "I know my Sanjiyan Ward magic is likely on par with an Orange belt at best but until we find someone skilled in this who will be an ally I'm afraid I'm it."

"So basically in the kingdom of the blind the one eyed man is king," commented Nabiki.

Genma frowned, "As far as Sanjiyan Ward magic goes that is about the size of it. About the only thing I will have going for me is my martial artist training."

"That maybe enough. If you are willing to admit your failings Pops I should admit mine especially as they have direct bearing on dealing with Benares and his allies," Parvati said sitting down with a cup of hot cocoa, "If there is one weakness we Sanjiyan Unkara and our Wu have it is our overreliance on magic. We never even thought about nonmagic means to increase our abilities. That is what made me so eager to have Ranma as my Wu - his speed and agility were incredible, beyond anything I thought possible for a mere mortal. Then over the next several weeks as Pai learned martial arts I found my own magical reserves increasing. When I finally dumped my ego and started learning from Pai's training my magical stamina and about everything else increased at an even faster pace."

Parvati paused to sip her cocoa, "While we know better Benares, Choukai, and whatever Creatures of Darkness they have enlisted as allies will be thinking only in terms of magical power. Abilities increased by Ki and Chakra will catch them totally off guard and that is how we must fight them."

"Creatures of Darkness? What are those?" asked Nodoka

"As Ranko and Parvati explained it that is the general term for supernatural creatures who tend to care for their own self interests over the welfare of humanity. All and all a very nasty bunch," Akane said, "Then there are what I call the freelance loonies who simply want the power of Sanjiyan Unkara to become immortal. Personally I think anyone who goes looking for the power of the Sanjiyan Unkara for only that reason needs to have their head examined."

"Actually Creatures of Darkness has a much broader meaning than that," chuckled Parvati, "It is often used to refer to being who for whatever reason must hide from the world. In that context it makes no assessment about self interests or even good or evil.

"Which brings up the important point of when does the Benares goon parade start showing up?" asked Nabiki.

Parvati frowned, "That is a hard one to answer. Benares is slow and methodical. If anything he would go to where he thinks all this got away from him. And what is out there will point straight to Jusenkyo."

Ranko put her head in her left hand, "Will what you sent there be able to stand up to him?"

"Unfortunately no. What I sent there was to keep mortals and lesser supernatural beings from messing with the Pool of Drowned Female Sanjiyan Unkara. Against a trained Wu they would be little more than distractions."

Genma frowned, "Let us go from the worse case situation. Benares takes a bath in Pool of Drowned Female Sanjiyan Unkara. What are we talking about threatwise?"

"The one good thing about the Pool of Drowned Female Sanjiyan Unkara is it only provides the form and raw power not the knowledge on using those abilities," commented Ranko.

"So he'd have the power but not the skill to access it," said Akane.

"Exactly and with Siva doing the Rip Van Winkle impression there would be no one he knows of to train him," Parvati took another sip of her cocoa, "Also from Pai's own experience the edges of some pools are very soft. Benares could fall into another pool."

"Problem is there is there is not just one Pool of Drowned Female Sanjiyan Unkara," said Setsuna, "Remember what I said about Rouge and the Pool of Drowned Ashura?"

"Are there any other Sanjiyan Unkara Pools under different names?" asked Nabiki.

Setsuna set her lips together forming a thin line, "There may be. I've seen alternate histories where Ranma has fallen into pools like drowned demon, goddess, angel, and god. While none of them showed three eyes in the timelines I saw they could be like Ashura not knowing the true of their origins.

"I don't know what would be worst, Benares running around with the power of Sanjiyan Unkara or a Creature of Darkness," said Ranko.

"How about both," said Genma, "We know from my own misadventure that the pools can combine. If Benares falls into more than one pool..."

"The one good thing is that going there it well effectively take Benares out of the picture for perhaps as long as four months."

"Which is just as well as this place is going to turn into a total media circus tomorrow," Nabiki grimaced, "Every reporter looking to make a name for themselves is going to be shoving a microphone, tape recorder, or camera in our faces."

"You don't think our oni friends would be enough to keep them away?" asked Akane.

Nabiki laughed, "In the quest for a story I dare say that there are enough reporters would face the Devil himself, all the demons of the underworld, and their servants to keep us busy."

Parvati chuckled a little. "It is ironic that you would mention demons. From what I have read the ancient Greeks saw a demon as merely a creature of knowledge, neither good nor evil. That is the most accurate description of most Sanjiyan Unkara that I have found mortals giving us. Only centuries later with the rise of Christianity did the term take on the negative context it now has."

Ranko raised her eyebrows in amazement, "When you mentioned Christianity a thought came to Ranma. Since the religions of the Hindus, Greeks, and Japanese were based on local groups of Sanjiyan Unkara what about Christianity itself?"

Parvati frowned, "From what I can tell Sanjiyan Unkara social structure has always been represented by mortals in the form of a Pantheon and Christianity doesn't fit that pattern. That Pluto's twin sister was Satan I would say that she influenced it but as for the other side I have no idea. Of course our tribes were so isolated from each other that until I met Ranma I thought my tribe was the only one in existence and the relatives mentioned that were not around had become human; I didn't know they may have actually been elsewhere in the world."

"Enough with the heady stuff. How about some training before school?" asked Akane unable to keep the eagerness out of her voice.

Ranko smiled, "I think we will dispense with Sanjiyan magic training for today. The backyard already looks like an Oni Zoo as it is and the last thing it needs is more additions. One thing we would like to see is just how well we can control our blows in warm water form. In a sense we are starting Ranma's week a little early but it would be a good idea to see what we need to work on during it."

---------------------------------

The Bakuchioh King sat eating his breakfast trying to decide if Lady Luck was offering him a gift or about ready to hit him upside the head with a mallet. On the one hand he had won the deed to the Tendo Dojo some 10 years ago from that kid Ranma. But on the other hand pissing off any Kami was risky especially a relation to _the_ supreme Kami of Japan. King smiled what was he worried about? He was the grandmaster of games of chance, if anyone could win such a gamble it was him. Just goes to show that Kuno wasn't the only one suffering from delusions of grandeur.

In the city of Tokyo a man the size of a sumo wrestler looked at his cart of dojo signs. He was tired of winning against little no name dojo that no had even heard of. To beat a dojo known as the meeting place of Kami and the Emperor now there was a challenge worry of him. And so the Dojo Yaburi made his way toward the Tendo Dojo.

Madame Saint-Paul was stunned. When she had gotten those two men to promise that one of their daughters be provided as a bride to her son she never dreamed that would mean Picolette Chardin II would have the option of a goddess as a wife. Much less one related to Amaterasu herself. Thinking back to that day she remembered that those two didn't strike her as the sharpest knives in the drawer. She and her son better hurry before those two idiots did something stupid.

Lilly glided down to the cave. She eyed the boulder covered in Shinto wards and balled her hands into fists. The Demon Hunters of old tended to label anything that didn't fit their little narrow world view as a demon and attacked to imprison or destroy it. Lilly was a second generation KamiOni Hunter; like her parents before her she searched for Shinto Ward prisons to release the poor wretches inside. No matter what the story told what she and every KamiOni Hunter had eventually found was a kami or Oni punished far in excess of whatever wrong it may had done. Lilly pulled a ward from her robes 'Bakusai Tenketsu Cha-Lieh-Chong.' she said throwing the ward at the boulder blasting it to pebbles. Stepping into the cave she saw a small gnome like creature. She could sense the being gained strength by absorbing Ki and Chakra somewhat like her paternal grandmother did. 'Don't worry little one like my mother I have ki and Chakra to burn; one of the perks to having Nymph blood in one's veins,' Lilly thought. The creature stirred and looked at Lilly and smiled, "Sweeto," it said jumping up and grabbing her chest.

Happosai was initially stunned by the amount of ki and Chakra this woman had. He could tell by the muscles of her legs and arms she was a skilled martial artist. The muscles on her wings were also particularly strong. Her face didn't show a trace of anger; her lips parted showing her fangs and her red eyes had amusement in them. Wait, hold everything, Wings? Fangs? Red eyes? Five seconds into his favorite perversion Happosai realized that he was groping and stealing the underwear of a demon. Yet she didn't make any efforts to drive him off. Strange. After a minute of groping Happosai sat down and pulled out his pipe. 'You seem to have the build of a martial artist. Mind if I inquire to your school?"

"Not at all sir, like all KamiOni Hunters I am trained in the Sanjiyan Unkara Ganso Musabetsu Kakuto Ryu."

It took all of Happosai's training to continue smoking his pipe rather than dropping it and his jaw to the floor. This woman was trained in a variant of the school he had founded. Sanjiyan Unkara? That name rang a very faint bell. Now he remembered, when he was dating Ke Lun in his youth she mentioned something about a powerful race of three eyed beings called the Sanjiyan Unkara. "Interesting my dear. I myself am a master of the Ganso Musabetsu Kakuto Ryu."

Lilly was puzzled. "I wasn't aware of anyone who still trained in the parent school. The closest I have seen until now has been people who train in the Saotome Ryu but even those are few and far between. Nearly all pupils take the more powerful daughter schools, like Saotome Sazan Ryu, Phoenix das Feuer, or the Sanjiyan Unkara Ganso Musabetsu Kakuto Ryu. Even the Happosai of this history stopped practicing the parent school preferring the flow and grace of the Saotome Sazan Ryu.

Happosai eyes narrowed, "What do you mean the Happosai of _this_ history? I am Happosai and until now I never even heard of the Saotome Sazan Ryu."

Lilly frowned "That would mean you are the Happosai of sansei-sama's birth history. I don't know how but somehow you have landed in this history. Tell you what, I'll fly you to Tokyo where Saotome Ranma lives and along the way I will tell you about my world.

Happosai nodded smiling. "I would like that."

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Kuno watched as his loves entered the school grounds. Parvati's statement about Emperor leaving behind any personal bodyguard meant one thing. That he the Blue Thunder had been chosen to help in this task. Of course to be so blessed meant that today he must conserve his strength and so could not prove his worthiness. Such is the life of a samurai.

In some respects Ranko and the rest had gotten use to Kuno proclaiming their love from him or some such nonsense. That he seemed to be simply standing there thinking mildly worried them but none of them wanted to break the peace by going over and asking the True Blunder what was going on. It was not like he wouldn't tell them himself. The only thing they hoped was it wouldn't be too stupid.

Getting to their tannin room Ranko and her friends noticed the name Hinomiya Hinako on the board and a small girl sitting at the desk. Everyone was puzzled as the girl looked too young for a high school student much less a teacher. Pai in typical fashion smiled from her desk and spoke in her familiar happy voice, "Hello. I am Pai. Who are you?"

Before the girl could reply a voice boomed from the loudspeaker "Aloha students, the Big Kahuna would like to welcome Hinomiya Hinako to the school staff as our new English teacher. Yesterday the Big Kahuna had to put his plans on hold due to suddenly feeling tired. But never fear the Big Kahuna is awake and bursting with energy today and has decided to have a contest. Whoever finds the lucky coconut will get not have to come to school Monday. What is so important about Monday? Well that is the day the Big Kahuna will give you all haircuts."

"Again with the haircuts?" asked Pai an annoyed tone in her voice.

"Maybe the Big Kahuna has a thing about cutting hair," commented Ranko.

"Then he should go to Tibet. Plenty of long hair yaks there to keep him happy," Pai said and then grumbled something about Geso.

The girl at the teacher's desk clapped her hands. "Oh I envy you students. You get to play a game," the girl then pouted, "But as staff I Hinomiya Hinako don't get to play,"

"If it not being to noisy just how old are you?" asked Pai.

"I will be 26 come next month," replied Hinako.

Pai blinked her eyes "I don't understand. Even the Sanjiyan Unkara mature at a normal rate,"

"This time it will work. I will get that better grade," said Gosunkugi who tried to perform a spell with predictable results. "AHHHH! Help me my hair is on fire!" he said running around like a maniac.

"Excuse me," said Ranko as she ran up, pulled out one of the buckets normally used for punishment, and doused Gosunkugi the amazing human candle.

Hinako frowned, "Just what was that about?"

"Gosunkugi instead of using mixed up magic to try to get better grades why don't you try studying?" asked Ranko in a tired voice.

"But Ranko don't you Sanjiyan Unkara use magic?" asked Gosunkugi

"We use it in battles to protect other people not to get better grades in school. When you are immortal you need something even school work to alleviate the boredom."

"Hikaru Gosunkugi," Hinako said pulling out a fifty yen coin "Meiou Setsuna told me about you, you delinquent. Happo Goju-en Satsu,"

Ranko watched as Gosunkugi got his ki drained and Hinako transformed into an adult. "Wonderful," said Pai clapping her hands "That is far more effective than Shi-Yao-Chong as there is no risk of creature getting out of control and eating wrong magic or person. Will Hikaru-sensei teach us after school on how to use?"

Hikaru raised her eyebrows, "You must be Saotome Pai. Sorry but I would have to get permission from my teacher and I have no idea were Happosai is,"

Pai nodded still smiling, "That not problem Happosai will show up in a month's time. I can learn from him directly."

Walking back to her desk Ranko shook her head, "Pai only you could look forward to a martial artist master who is also woman groping underwear stealing pervert."

"Its not like I don't have ways of keeping him from getting too out of control," Pai said pulling out a Ward.

"You know there are times when I don't know what scares me more sis: that there is a woman groping underwear stealing pervert of a martial artist master coming or that you are perfectly willing to let him train you. We have _really_ got to work on your sense of modesty,"

Pai giggled "Parvati said that too when I asked her why we need the swimsuit for swimming. I only wear it because she says it is important."

Ranko simply blinked her eyes for a few moments "Are you telling me that if not for Parvati you would take swimming class in the nude?!" Ranko managed to get out her voice going up a few octaves while a few boys got stupid grins on their faces.

Pai cocked her head to the side "Sure what is the problem with that? Parvati why do you want control so you can hit head against desk?"

"Pai when we get to gym class I am going to have some of the other girls talk to you. You definitely need some lessons in modesty," Ranko said rubbing her head.

"If you say so sis. I still don't understand what the problem is," said Pai as Parvati mentally grumbled about naive personalities.

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Even in Nerima lunch time is normally a time for relaxation. At the Tendo Dojo it was anything but. Genma was in his warm water form shaking his head at the way the day had gone so far. Just today he had hung out another sign saying Sazan Ryu out and then everything went nuts. First the Dojo Yaburi had shown up and asked to challenge the Tendo's dojo schools the day after tomorrow. Then the Bakuchioh King had shown up stating that he had won the dojo from Ranma 10 years ago and planned to turn it into a casino. Of course this produced some heated words from Soun which attracted one of the Fei-Oh while one of the Takuhi flew off in the direction of the palace. The Bakuchioh King looked the Fei-Oh in the eye for a full 10 seconds before turning into a babbling fool. He was still mumbling something about dying and going to Hell when Madame Saint-Paul showed up asking about the daughter promised to her son Picolette Chardin II. When she was told that except for Kasumi they were all at school she said they would both wait. That his wife was not happy at the situation was an understatement.

Nodoka simply glared at him and Soun "Are their any more fiancées you two would like to tell me about?" she asked in a voice very similar to Parvati's.

Genma looked at Soun, "No that should be it," Soun nodded.

"You two quite sure that there are not more fiancées going to show up?" Nodoka asked as she opened her third eye. The Dojo Yaburi, Madame Saint-Paul, and Picolette Chardin II looked on with curiosity while the Bakuchioh King renewed his babbling.

"Quite sure. Don't you trust me?" asked Genma nervously.

"I did once. As a result our son came back with a concept of man among men so extreme that he was actually afraid it might include making love to his own sister. And in addition you knocked him into the pool of Drowned Female Sanjiyan Unkara which is going to make efforts for him and Ranko to marry difficult at best," Nodoka stated her voice becoming colder.

"Wait a minute," Madame Saint-Paul said with apprehension, "What is this about your _son_ falling into a pool of Drowned Female Sanjiyan Unkara?"

"When my son is hit by cold water he becomes my daughter Ranko. Warm water restores him," Nodoka said picking up her glass of ice water which she promptly threw in her husband's face. Madame Saint-Paul and Picolette Chardin II widened their eyes in shock as Genma turned into a woman with black and white fur. The Bakuchioh King's eyes started to glaze over. "My husband originally fell into Pool of Drowned Panda but he tried to replace that with pool of Drowned Female Sanjiyan Unkara. Instead the effects of the two pools combined."

Before Madame Saint-Paul could form a response everyone heard the sound of wings flapping. "That sounds too big to be Setsuna and it is still too early for school to be out," said Genma looked out into the back yard and took a sharp intake of breath.

"Ah, Genma, there you are. This Takuhi was very insistent that I come back to the dojo but it couldn't explain why. So what is going on?" asked Amaterasu from the back of a black dragon hovering over the dojo the symbols of US fighter planes on its wings catching in the light.

"General Yamato, Saotome Oni. Am I finally glad to see some familiar faces. For a moment I thought that somehow I have gone to the timeline of Master Happosai here," The dragon and Genma turned and saw a blond haired female demon landing carrying a vaguely familiar looking gnome.

Genma paled at hearing the name. "Master Happosai?!"

Happosai let go of the demon and looked up at the dragon, "Impressive reserves of Ki and Chakra you have. You are everything Hiro Lilly here said you were and more," Happosai turned to Genma and narrowed his eyes, "You know there is something familiar about you."

Genma initial thought was to do the Moko Rakuchi-sei but she remembered that she summoned oni, was training Wu and Sanjiyan Unkara, and was kin to a goddess. "I thought you weren't supposed to escape from the cave Soun and I sealed you in for another month," Genma said reaching into her gi sleeve.

Happosai smiled a grim smile, "Genma? Let me guess, you tried to use the Jusenkyo training grounds and you fell into the pool of drowned girl. Then you stumbled around and fell into pool of drowned panda. Little too much animal for my tastes but there are still plenty of other lovelies about," he said gesturing around.

Genma did something Happosai did not expect; he smiled. "Actually you are only half right. The other pool was drowned Female Sanjiyan Unkara. Like draining Ki and Chakra Master? Don't you know it is better to give than receive?" Genma said slapping a Ward on the pervert.

It took a grand total of two seconds for Happosai to realize that the Ward he had been slapped with was draining all that nice ki Lilly had given him and to take the thing off. "Got a backbone since I left I see _student_," Happosai said reaching into his Gi.

Genma grin got bigger as his third eye opened up. Happosai stopped for a moment "What in the world?"

"Master Happosai. Pendragon Oni say to behave or she will have to hurt you," said Amaterasu jumping down.

Amaterasu's unearthly female beauty had an immediate effect on the perverted martial artist. "Sweeto," he exclaimed groping the goddess.

"THIS IS NOT WHAT I MEANT BY BEHAVING! HEY GIVE THAT UNDERWEAR BACK!" yelled Amaterasu blushing redder than a tomato as Happosai examined his latest darlings, "Pendragon I know you want to pound the little pervert but while we are a 10th Dan in Kunjutsu our unarmed skills are nowhere that good. Just dashing in without knowing the full extent of his skill is a good way to get clobbered." The Bakuchioh King looked at this latest development leaned against a wall and fainted.

"Happosai, please behave," came a soft but firm baritone voice from the dragon.

Happosai looked up at the dragon again and noticed that it now had the cap of a WWII US Army dress uniform in its claws. "Nagako, I think it's time for the warm water." Nagako nodded and jumped down with a thermos in her hand. Pouring some water into a cup she poured part of it on her own head. While her third eye vanished she retained your youthful appearance. The dragon bent down and she poured the rest of the water on his head. Quickly the dragon changed into a youthful Yamoto Hirohito wearing a WWII US Army brigadier general's dress uniform.

"General Yamoto," said Happosai bowing.

Hirohito smiled sadly, "In form but not in knowledge. I woke up yesterday with this ability to change and this uniform in my closet." Hirohito shifted slightly obviously nervous, "We have all been trying to figure out how to deal with the two cities from a totally different Japan being in this one. To them Emperor Hirohito was weak man who never had the chance to truly shape Japan's place in the world. General Yamoto on the other hand is a man of power who was willing to give up everything for the giri of his nation. They will likely not listen to Emperor Hirohito but General Yamoto on the other hand…"

Happosai mouth tightened, "You may think you do not have the knowledge of General Yamoto but you definitely have his skill. I can tell by your stance."

Hirohito and Amaterasu looked at Happosai and then at each other. "Want to test that out?" Hirohito nodded. Amaterasu suddenly threw several fist blows at Hirohito who effortlessly blocked them. The next thing Amaterasu knew she was on the ground on her back via a judo throw. After pulling her up off the ground Hirohito looked at his hands "How?"

Lilly giggled, "What Westerners call muscle memory. One key aspect of Ganso Musabetsu Kakuto and all of its daughter Ryu is to be able to react automatically to any threat. You may not consciously know the moves but your body and subconscious do."

Hirohito stared at his hands. "We quickly found out my personal library had changed. The history books talked about how General Yamoto ended the war with the US with two demonstrations of the most powerful martial arts technique ever developed,"

Lilly nodded, "The Oppenheimer Retributive Strike. Hiroshima August 6 and Nagasaki August 9, 1942. It is the reason there are few humans in either of those cities. You need not worry; muscle memory is involved in regularly used methods. The Oppenheimer Retributive Strike was used only twice and that was over 40 years ago,"

Hirohito nodded, "So it is not something I would accidentally use," he then looked up into the sky, "When we first transformed we were frightened but there is power in these forms. There is something about flying under your own power with the wind in your face."

Happosai nodded, "Martial Arts is about self discipline in the proper use of power,"

"And this little piece of wisdom is coming from a man who uses martial arts to indulge in his personal perversion," commented Amaterasu sarcastically.

"Hey at my age there are few things I can enjoy so I indulge in them. Well I'm off to see what excitement this city has to offer," said Happosai running off.

"If we're really lucky the pervert will get over his head and get his clock cleaned," said Amaterasu.

"Somehow even if the Shichi Fukujin were here right now I doubt we would get that kind of luck," commented Genma.

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"AAAAGGGGHHHH! There is a pervert in the locker room! It stole my panties! It stole my bra! That is nothing it stole both my panties and my bra! POUND THE PERVERT!" screamed several female voices.

"Hahaha. What a haul. What a haul," said a gnome carrying a sack of female underwear with a good portion of the female gym class after him.

"Only one person could be causing that much a fuss. But I thought that headache wasn't due for another month," commented Ranko as she exited the school.

Pai started giggling and hugging herself. "Grandmaster here. Now Pai have another Sense."

'You know I don't know if I should be afraid for Pai or sorry for Happosai.' commented Ranma mentally.

Looking over at the giggling Pai Ranko shook her head, 'I think feeling sorry for the pervert would be a good guess.'

"My don't you have large ones. What no bra and a pair of boxers? And you have four arms?" commented Happosai.

"PREPARE TO DIE PERVERT!" yelled Ryoga generating a nice red battle aura as she tried to pound the diminutive martial artist.

"Oops. Have to leave, bye," said the perverted gnome as majority of the female gym class jumped at him. Unfortunately all they managed to do was dog pile on Ryoga whose anger threshold went up another notch.

"Sham Pu is it just me or did it get drafty all of a sudden?" commented Ranko.

"Aiee. Perverted gnome steal Shampoo's and Honored One's underwear. SHAMPOO KILL! Rei-Syou!" yelled Sham Pu.

"Whooo. Now that hits the spot," said Happosai as he wriggled free of the lightning snake absorbing part of its energy.

"Eat mallet and die freak!" yelled Akane who ran after Happosai with a croquet mallet she had grabbed from somewhere.

"Akane have right idea. Introduce perverted gnome to blunt object about head. SHAMPOO DO WORSE THAN KILL, SHAMPOO MAIM!" Sham Pu yelled as she grabbed Ukyo's battle spatula and also chased after the freak.

"PERVERT PREPARE FOR PAIN!" screamed a totally enraged Ran-Pao-Pao who in turn joined the chase.

"Ranko, not to sound thankless but why hasn't the freak stolen my underwear?"

Ranko sighed "Because you still tend to dress like a boy. I think the freak goes by appearance rather than Ki or Chakra auras. Otherwise he would have known better than to glomp a Ran-Pao-Pao,"

"Pai so happy to finally met Grandmaster Happosai. Will begin training Pai now?"

"Hey I am the one who is supposed to be clingy!" yelled Happosai. "Uh oh. Got to go,"

"I see the pervert has met Pai," snickered Ranko as she watched the gnomish martial artist run up a tree.

Pai walked up to the tree. "Pai understand. Master Happosai want to see how good Pai is first. Cha-Lieh-Chong Rei-Syou revised!" yelled Pai, which promptly fried every leaf off the tree. It also nicely baked a certain gnomish martial artist, and the females of the gym class cheered.

Happosai blinked and then frowned. Lilly had told him that Ranma's wife Parvati had another personality called Pai who had wanted to be human. Ranma's solution had been to take her Jusenkyo but after Pai bathed in the Pool of Drowned Girl Ranma had found out about and in warm water form jumped into the pool of Drowned Female Sanjiyan Unkara and convinced Pai to be his Wu. With both of them immortal and indestructible they would on occasion go to some desolate place and go all out against each other lighting up the air with Ki, Chi, and magic. From what Lilly had told him because normal factors like pain and mortal harm didn't apply to Pai she would jump at any kind of training available no matter how crazy or dangerous. While very dedicated not to mention having a stamina that won't quit Pai did have one annoying aspect: she was happy nearly all the time. Worse yet if Pai decided you are to be her sensei that was it she would continue to show up using what she had learned since the last time to show that she qualified.

Happosai weighed all the options he knew of and nodded. "Quite impressive. Perhaps it would be better if on the way home you told me what you know so I can better plan your training."

Pai smiled clapping her hand "Of course Sensei."

As the walked to the Tendo Dojo Happosai tried to shake off the feeling as Pai ran though techniques he barely understood that he would have been better off if he had let the females of the gym class pound him.

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Lai-chi and her pet elephant were walking to the Tendo Dojo led by Okuninushi. In her hand was the scroll that connected her to her promised love. Okuninushi had told her love would be there within one day's time. All she had to do was wait and in the company of major kami no less. This was going to be the happiest day of her life.

Okuninushi may have been smiling but his mind was a whirl from the early morning's events. When he had found the Shichi Fukujin he found them in worse state then Amaterasu had been. At least Amaterasu knew that Pendragon Oni was not her real name which was more than any of the self claimed Seven Lucky God martial artists could say. Benten was now Monlon, Ebisu was Ebitan, Bishamon was Bishamonten, Fukurokuju and Jurojin were now young kids called Daihakuse and Daikokuse, Hotei had for some reason chosen the name Wu, and Daiukoku under the name Kirin was leading this happy group on a quest to find his wife. He had told them he would have Kirin's bride at the Tendo dojo in one day's time and a little trip to Guardian Pluto had given him the identity of this future wife and the means to get her to the Dojo on time. All he had to was make sure Lai-chi kept her hand on the scroll and things would go somewhat according to plan. He hoped.

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Nabiki struggled to keep her Ice Queen face on when she came within sight of the Tendo Dojo. She had said that tomorrow the place would be a media circus but right now it looked very much like a real circus complete with elephant. Over the house hovered a ship while out front with the elephant were two incredibly huge men and woman happily strumming on a lute. On the front step sat Okuninushi and Amaterasu their heads resting on their left fists in a parody of The Thinker statue. As she approached they both looked up with Okuninushi weakly folded his arms across his chest while Amaterasu smiled spreading her arms her hands upward.

"Hello Nabiki. The good news is Okuninushi found the Shichi Fukujin. The bad news is they are even more out of it then I was," Amaterasu said her smile finally turning into a frown and her hand falling back into her lap.

"Daiukoku or rather Kirin is talking to his future wife, Lai-chi about their wedding plans. At least that much went right," Okuninushi said as he rested his head on his left open hand. "The Shichi Fukujin I last saw some 70 years ago I knew very well but these Seven Lucky God martial artists are total strangers. I have no idea on what they are capable of and even some of their magical items seemed to have disappeared."

Amaterasu face brighten up and she heartily slapped Okuninushi on the back, "Look on the bright side that means someone expecting the traditional powers of the Shichi Fukujin will be caught off guard. Hey Genma how about a little aerial training?"

A voice answered back from atop one of the flying jaws, "Sure. Besides with the amount of people we got here its about the only place we _can_ train."

Amaterasu giggled as she took off her scabbard and handed it to Nabiki and ran off to train with Genma. Okuninushi sighed, "Amaterasu has changed from the timid heart of gold Kami I knew. The heart of gold is still there but it is tempered with sword steel. Amaterasu has turned into a total tomboy."

"And what is wrong with being a tomboy?" asked Akane fire in her eyes.

Okuninushi chuckled, "For the modern world nothing at all. I long ago woke up to the fact that the days where a woman's place was only in the home were gone. I guess I am just not use to seeing it in Amaterasu herself.

Akane relaxed slightly and smiled. "I have a feeling that tomorrow is going to bring even more surprises," came a voice to the side. Akane turned and quickly recognized the woman in her early 20s holding walking stick much like Pai's walking toward them. "Empress Nagako?" Akane asked bowing deeply.

Nagako smiled and bowed deeply back to Akane. "I see that becoming a Sanjiyan Unkara doesn't break old habits."

Nabiki watched the exchange with some amusement, "Don't worry you will get kind of use to it. After the first century or two that is," she said.

Nagako blinked "After the first _century_ or two?!" she stammered.

Nabiki shook her head sadly. "You really have not grasped just what being Sanjiyan Unkara means have you? Immortality and eternal youth. Pai said her auntie Ashura disappeared around the time of a mortal named King Solomon. I did some research and as best as I can tell that was some 4,000 years ago. Never mind that painting Pai has with her that she thinks was done by her mother is 12,000 years old."

"Twa Twe twelve _12,000_ years?!" Nagako stammered out her three eyes now the size of dinner plates.

Nabiki nodded solemnly, "I had much the same reaction when I first found out," Nabiki looked around at the collection of beings around her. "With such a bunch of colorful characters around at least it will be interesting. What is the point of being immortal if you are bored silly?"

"From what Parvati said I believe boredom will be the _least_ of our problems," said a familiar voice.

Nabiki and Akane turned to see a Sailor Pluto smiling at them. "I thought I should better show up to try and keep things from getting out of hand."

"Rough translation you decided to be here in the hope it will keep the Outers from panicking and deciding to do something stupid," said Setsuna as she glided down on her wings.

"Hello Setsuna. I brought something for you to read," said Pluto as she pushed a book into Setsuna's hands.

Setsuna looked down at the book and frowned, "Phoenix das Feuer?" she said looking back up to Pluto her eyes narrowing, "You can't be from General Yamoto's history, as according to Manfred we are dead in that world"

Pluto grimly nodded as she and her counterpart walked back to the dojo area. Setsuna opened the book to the title page and frowned again, "To Guardian Pluto - may your giri be in harmony with your ninjo signed Hitler-sensei," she said aloud.

Even though they both knew that in that other history Hitler had not been a genocidal madman Setsuna and Nabiki still had a chill go down their spines. They both then proceeded to enter the back yard. If anything it was even more a circus then the front was. There was a guy with a rice bowl in one hand talking to a young woman. Soun in his Sanjiyan Unkara form was sparring with some guy with a trident among the Flying Jaws while a pair of twins and a man with a fishing pole looked on. Nabiki felt Setsuna nudge her with her elbow and looked in the direction for the koi pond. In his dress uniform stood General Yamoto talking with Nodoka.

"Could you please tell me which circle this is?" asked a voice form behind them. Startled they both turned and faced a man dressed much like the King in a deck of playing cards.

Setsuna nodded, "Well well if it isn't the Bakuchioh King. You weren't supposed to show up for several months. But then neither was the Amazing Pervert. Hate to burst your bubble but you claim on the Tendo Dojo is invalid.'

"What claim?" asked Akane in an annoyed tone.

"Ranma tried to win back Ukyo's cart by gambling the dojo his father told him he would be heir to. Until Ranma actually marries a Tendo the dojo will not be his to gamble with. Besides I doubt the kami here would look favorably on a man who gambles with the future of children."

"After our meeting we are going to have Wu pancakes ala Ranma," said Akane smiling as she slapped her fight fist into her left open palm.

"Again what circle is this?" asked the Bakuchioh King.

"Circle?" asked Setsuna puzzled.

Nabiki chuckled recognizing what the man meant by his question, "You're not dead you know."

The man seemed to brighten up at that news, "I am not dead? I thought sure from the decor that I was."

Nabiki smiled sinisterly at the King, "Not at all you are just where the spirit and mortal realms meet. Not really exclusively one or the other."

Setsuna gestured and the Time Gates appeared. The King blanched as he saw the image of a devastated city. "Interesting to look at this city as it was 40 years ago isn't it? This is not just a window to the past, present, and future it is also a door," Setsuna said as the image shifted showing a city with ornate crystal buildings among older structures. "Even histories that for us never were are open to us."

The Bakuchioh King backed up. "Who, who _are_ you?

Setsuna turned and smiled her most sinister smile at the King. "I am Setsuna the Time Guardian. I can literally see and know it all. Not just what was, is, and will be, but what could have been," she said letting her eyes flash red as she finished.

For the Bakuchioh King that was enough. He might be the master of games of chance but it was clear to him that to this being there was no such thing as chance. When he had seen the demon tadpole up close he had thought he had died and been sent to Hell. Now he realized he was somewhere far more nightmarish - the boundary between Heaven and Hell, this world and the next. In all the stories he could remember in what seemed like days years would pass in the outside world for those who dallied in such places. The Bakuchioh King turned and ran from the Tendo Dojo as fast as he could less he be like Rip Van Winkle and find 20 years had passed.

After watching the Bakuchioh King run away like a maniac Setsuna and Nabiki looked at each other and finally both burst out laughing. "I don't think he will be back any time soon," said Nabiki. "That was kind of fun. If any one really deserved having his mind messed with it is the Bakuchioh King. Well that is one annoyance dealt with," Setsuna said as she looked up at the backyard. "I think I better help Kasumi prepare dinner. Looks like a lot of these early arrivals are going to be staying the night," Setsuna commented as she dismissed the Time Gates and walked into the kitchen

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Picolette Chardin II realized his mistake about one minute into his meal. Setsuna's comment about winning Martial Artist Dining eating French food should have been a hint but he had ignored it and had challenged Genma and Soun again this time using the Sanjiyan Unkara dishes in front of them. He had watched that Kuno person and the Emperor himself eat from the dishes and like an egotistical idiot thought he could handle them. Now he wanted nothing more than to find the bathroom.

"What wrong with Picolette Chardin II?" asked Pai between mouthfuls, "He is looking a little green,"

"A _little_ green?" laughed Setsuna, "If we gave him white cape and turban we could call him Piccolo rather than Picolette."

"Excuse me," Picolette said as he raced for the bathroom holding his hand over his mouth.

"I knew that was going to happen," commented Setsuna giggling like a school girl, "Sanjiyan Unkara physiology is different enough that a few of our dishes are not eatable by _normal_ humans."

"That confirms something I always suspected," Akane said pointing to Kuno who was eating his third helping of Sanjiyan Unkara food. "Kuno is definitely not normal."

Nabiki shrugged her shoulders, "When he showed up and said he was honored that we had chosen him to help guard the guests I thought letting him eat the food would send him running in more ways than one. Who knew that the Blue Thunder had a stomach made of cast iron?"

"What is scary is that he said that some of these dishes reminded him of his sister's cooking _before_ her transformation," commented Nabiki.

"I suspect that the Kunos like Ranma, Genma, and Yamoto-sama have Sanjiyan Unkara in their ancestry," said Ranko.

"Pai did say the humanization process was not foolproof and on occasion it would produce bad results up to and including madness," commented Nabiki as dipped her meat in a rich sauce.

"That would go a long way to explain why the family is a bunch of Fruit Loops. And how Kuno was able to sense a powerful Shinto priest from an average one," said Setsuna.

Things calmed down slightly after that. Picolette wound up going to the a hospital to have his stomach pumped and Madame Saint-Paul conceded the match; she reasoned that it would do no good for her son to have a goddess for a wife if some of her meals were down right toxic to "ordinary" mortals. Despite the number of people no one had a trouble finding a place to sleep. The Seven Luck Gods martial artists plus bride slept on their boat. The Emperor insisted on sleeping in the outside air his wings forming a shelter in which his wife slept. Soun and Genma were sleeping atop Fei-Oh while Happosai and Lilly slept in the Dojo and so on. The only thing awake for several hours were Kuno and a few oni; as far as Kuno cared all was right with the world.

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[Author's note: This chapter was mainly to clean house so to speak ie get rid on some future plot issues for Ranma out of the way. The next chapter will resolve one 3x3 Eyes and two Sailor Moon plot points. And everybody gets a totally new enemy and its not who you are expecting.


	19. Chap 19 Broken Crystal

Chap 19 Broken Crystal

Ranma 1/2 is the creation of Rumiko Takahashi, 3x3 eyes (Sazan Eyes) is the creation of Yuzo Takada, Sailor Moon is the creation of Naoko Takeuchi. All are used without permission. This fan-fiction isn't intended for commercial use but is rather a tribute to Ranma 1/2, 3x3 Eyes, and Sailor Moon.

Kuno stood in the cold morning and stiffened as he heard a noise. "Easy, Kuno, it's only me, Lilly," Kuno strained to see the blond demon in the dim light. "Something bothering you?" he asked.

Lilly chuckled, "To some degree. From what I understand the Hiroshima and Nagasaki _I_ know have been transplanted to an Japan very similar to the one Sensai-sama was driven from. How can we coexist here? Can given our different value systems even coexist?"

"I can answer that," came the baritone voice of Yamato Hirohito soft as a whisper and yet as clear as if he had yelled. "You can coexist. Eventually your values will become this Japan's values; it will just take time."

Kuno frowned, "What of the traditional values of this Japan? Will they fade?"

Hirohito chuckled softly, "I have had time to read on the values of that other Japan. There really is not that much difference. Giri drives Lilly's Japan as much as it drives this one. All that has been stripped away in her Japan is the idea of hinin. As a result her Japan is both an economic and military world power." 'Even if it is because is it part of the United States.' Hirohito thought to himself.

"A military so well trained that things like guns, motorized vehicles, and planes are viewed as crutches to be used as little as possible," said Setsuna her wings looking so much like a cloak in the dim light. "You consider yourself skilled but in Lilly's Japan a person would be expected to equal and even surpass your skill level before their 12th year of life."

Kuno's eyes widened, "They are expected to be as skilled as the Blue Thunder by their 12th birthday?"

"From what I read it got to the point that the masters had to totally restructure their training methods as you had people who by all rights were 1st Dan defeating 7th or even 8th Dan as if they were mere white belts regardless of what form they were in," Hirohito said, "For a lot of Ryu it was a classic case of refining and improving the school to keep up."

Kuno nodded, "And it is here that the safety of the world will be determined."

"Not only its safety but its future as well," said Setsuna nodding.

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Tsukino Ikuko quietly walked to the kitchen. She was concerned as she heard two female voices but as far as she knew only she, her husband, their son Shingo and daughter Usagi were in the house. She looked through the open kitchen door and saw Usagi eating breakfast with what could only be described as a harpy on the table chirping at her daughter. Also on the table was the cat Usagi had adopted. As she stood at the door way she realized that the second female voice was coming from the cat.

"Usagi, have you lost your collective mind?" said Luna.

"Luna, will you calm down. It's a wonder you haven't woke up the whole house the way you have been carrying on," Usagi said putting another spoonful of cereal in her mouth.

"Calm Down? Calm Down?! How on Earth can I calm down? You and the Sailor Senshi are going into a place that might as well be demon central and meeting with a group who until a few weeks ago was bent on your destruction."

"One of whom happens to be my daughter from a possible future," Usagi commented as she finished her cereal and started washing the bowl and plates.

"You are the Princess. It is your duty to bring back the Moon Kingdom..."

Usagi spun around the anger clear in her voice, "I may not be the most attentive person but at least I _listen_, Luna. This is _not_ our history. There never was a Moon Kingdom in this history so there is nothing to bring back, silly cat," Usagi then put the dishes to dry. "Why don't you come in, mother. I think you have a lot of questions for me."

Luna spun around looking at the door as Ikuko stepped through. "What?! er Mrow?"

"Forget it, Luna. My mother has been standing there for the last five minutes listening to you rant. She knows you can talk," Usagi said pulling out her hensen stick.

Luna started to sweatdrop, "Usagi, what are you planning to do?"

Raising her hensen stick Usagi smiled, "Only this. Sanjiyan Unkara power make up!"

Ikuko watched as her daughter clothes transformed into long flowing robes with an ornate headdress. Usagi removed the headdress and set it on the table. "Don't worry, mother it's still me. I only tapped in the power I had in a previous life."

Ikuko slowly walked to the table and sat down. "Is this why you have been gone at odd hours of the day?" she asked.

Usagi shook her head "No. That was due to my activities as Sailor Moon, not as a Sanjiyan Unkara."

Ikuko's face paled, "Sanjiyan Unkara? But that is the term that three eyed being on TV used to describe Amaterasu."

"Her name is Saotome Parvati, also known to the Hindus as the Goddess Parvati," Usagi said as she raised her hand, "While it is true that Sanjiyan Unkara have immortality, eternal youth, and great power they are _not_ deities or demons. That is merely the way mortals see them," Usagi then wryly smiled, "In all other respects the Sanjiyan Unkara are beings of flesh and blood subject to death and reincarnation."

Ikuko looked at the harpy on the table, "And what is this?"

"It is a Takuhi. I have been having him gather information in the district so we have an idea on where, when, and what the next attack is. "

Ikuko frowned. "Usagi, this is dangerous. You could get killed. I cannot let you continue to do this."

Usagi started crying, "You think I _want_ this, mother? Fighting psychopathic life sucking demons on nearly a weekly basis. Did you know that my four friends _died_ in a fight with a power crazed maniac from my previous life called Queen Beryl?" Usagi wailed as she pulled out her compact. "I asked for my friends back, to be just a normal girl with no crazed life sucking demons, and the Ginzuishou granted my wish by bringing my friends back and wiping out our memories. Yet here we are again as the Sailor Scouts fighting crazed life sucking demons."

Usagi looked at her compact "For all the power this creation of the Sanjiyan Unkara has it can not change my destiny. My ninjo is irrelevant as I cannot escape my giri as Princess of the Moon Kingdom even though that Kingdom died nearly 12,000 years ago in another reality," Usagi said putting her head in between her arms and crying the Ginzuishou still in her right hand. "Don't you understand mother the only way to keep from going crazy is to embrace my giri," Usagi sobbed.

"But what _is_ your giri, mother?" came a voice from the back door. Ikuko looked up at a tall woman dressed in a black dress her pinkish hair going down almost to the floor with a ball in the form of a cat's head in her hands.

"Black Lady!" hissed Luna.

"Well if it isn't mother's dimension hopping mummy brained cat adviser. Mother would have been better off with a magic 8-ball given how swisscheesed your memory was," Black Lady commented as she pulled out a chair and sat down. "I did not come here to have a fight with you or anyone else, Luna. I came to see how this alternate version of mother was doing and I find her emotionally falling apart. Either of you two care to explain?"

"It's not either of their fault," Usagi said pulling her head out of her arms. "I am just tired of being Sailor Moon and worrying about the choice that turned me into Neo-Queen Serenity."

Black Lady smiled softly, "I think the fact you even dare ask that question shows you are in no danger of becoming Neo-Queen Serenity," Black Lady then got up and pulling out a hanky and wiped Usagi's face with it. "It we have learned anything from this is our future is not set in stone. Now stop crying mother; you will cause your make up to run and it would not be fitting to representing the Sailor Senshi looking like you fell off the boat."

Usagi looked up at her daughter from the future and burst out laughing. "A Sailor Senshi who looks like she fell off the boat," Black Lady frowned and then realizing what she had said joined her mother in laughing.

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In the decaying remains of what had once been Crystal Tokyo a purple robed figure appeared. Looking over a piece of equipment the figure nodded its head. The figure then walked down a flight of stairs to where four female skeletons clothed in the remains of sailor scout uniforms laid in glass chambers. The figure sat down on what had once been an elaborate throne but was decayed with age. Pouring itself a glass of wine the figure raised its glass in a toast. "To my old and dear friends," As the figure drank its wine a green muscular demon came in. "How did it go, my Lady?"

"Better than expected. Wiseman was ridiculously easy to dispatch. Finding that alternate timeline was the greatest stroke of luck. There are thousands of totally _willing_ partners for you and your fellow lust demons available there."

The green demon nodded and then frowned "But not all of us want _willing_ partners."

The purple figure rolled its glass in its hand. "That is why I left us an access to the Valkyrie Warrior timeline open. A few tweaks and we will have the Dead Moon Circus active early and the Sailor Scouts and their contemporaries will be so busy dealing with those two that what is going on in the 30th century will take a back seat. By the way how are they holding up?"

The green demon shrugged, "Well we now have it to where it takes them a full year to vedge on us. And you got it to the point where it takes only a day to put their minds back together again."

The purple figure sat its glass down. "I sense a but in there. Well don't worry my friend. We have all of history to seek out new playthings for you and your friends. This variant is proving to be an interesting distraction."

"I agree," nodded the Demon grinning eagerly. "Just out of curiosity what is with you calling yourself the Golden Lord to the servants of the Makaiju? The Golden I can guess at given your hair color but you are the wrong gender to be called a Lord."

The purple robed figure laughed, "Its all part of a mind game. You see that is the name of an anime character. Despite her masculine titles she was also called the mother of all things."

"And you want anyone who finds out about this to believe that you are this anime character," said the demon nodding.

"Exactly. Poor poor foolishly idealistic Sailor Moon. You thought Sailor Galaxia was your most dangerous enemy," The purple figure rolled backed its head and laughed "I may have missed Sailor Pluto's reaction when I defused the threat posed by servants of the Makaiju but the look on Neo-Queen Serenity's face when we finally meet will more than make up for it."

----------------------------------

Nabiki shook her head. Circus had been an understatement. Total madhouse could be more accurate. At least most of the reporters respected the idea that the dojo and backyard were off limits. That the Black Moon Family were visitors from the future and the Seven Lucky God martial artist had dozens of stories to relate helped. Though given what the Black Moon Family were say about it Nabiki figured that by the time the meeting started Crystal Tokyo would be PRwise on par with Stalin's Soviet Union or maybe even the Spanish Inquisition.

Empress Nagako seemed to have found a friend in the normally somber Parvati who was talking and laughing with her. Oni and Hotaru were training high among the Fei-Oh while Emperor Hirohito still in General Yamato's uniform talked to Setsuna and Pluto. Nabiki looked up at the now familiar chirp of a Fei-Oh and saw Sailor Moon and Black Lady on its back. Pluto suddenly stopped talking and looked up at the house's roof. "Uranus, Neptune could you please come down from there. There is one thing about being cautious there is another thing about being paranoid," Pluto said somewhat annoyed. Kasumi's answering of a knock at the door revealed the rest of the Sailor Scouts.

"Well now that everyone one is here we can get to business," said Pluto.

----------------------------------

There were too many people for the dojo so everyone sat in the backyard. To ensure their privacy Setsuna cast an opaque energy barrier around the backyard. Setsuna then spoke, "First off thank you for all coming. I think the first order of business is to explain what has happened to Hiroshima and Nagasaki."

Setsuna paused for a moment as if considering her next words, "The simplest way to say this is despite what it appears the Time Gates say the people in Hiroshima and Nagasaki belong to _this_ timeline."

"That makes no sense!" exclaimed Uranus as a murmur went through the rest of the group.

"I believe that Setsuna-sama has an explanation for her statement. The Blue Thunder believes it is only right to hear her out," commented Kuno.

"Kuno is right," 'I cannot believe that I just said that.' thought Ranma. "I think we should hear out Setsuna before jumping to all kinds of wild conclusions."

Setsuna nodded approvingly, "Kuno and Ranma are right; there is an explanation for my statement. Given what had happened regarding the Black Moon Family and Guardian Pluto I decided to set up the Time Gates up so if anyone or anything moved though time I would be alerted to it. The Time Gates did not produce one peep. Also people and cities traveling across time would not explain the transformations of the royal family, Kuno's sister or several other people in Tokyo," Setsuna said steepling her hands under her chin.

"To quote the most famous fictional detective Sherlock Holmes 'eliminate the impossible and whatever remains no matter how improbable is the truth.' If nothing physical could have come though the Gates then the only explanation left is a signal was sent through the Gates accessing several magical items in this timeline in an effort to change Japan into what it was in other timeline," Setsuna continued.

Nabiki nodded "That would explain the transformations in body but not in mind or memory; one of the items being used simply ran out of power."

"That or the items being used started resisting the Time Gates."

Genma frowned, "The day this all came to light the Ningen No Zou looked brighter and covering the windows of the dojo I found out it was glowing. When I was looking though the Sazan Ryu to try and figure out what was happening the glow vanished. I forgot about it until Setsuna said that magic items in this world have been used," Genma finished as he got up and went into the Dojo. Returning with the Ningen No Zou in his arms he sat it in front of Setsuna.

Setsuna looking at the statue narrowing her eyes and uttered a series of epitaphs in several long dead languages. Guardian Pluto shook her head, "Just because we are called the Sailor Senshi does not mean we should curse like sailors," she commented with an amused tone in her voice.

"I take it by your reaction, Setsuna that the Time Gates did use the Ningen No Zou," stated Emperor Hirohito.

"Yes. Unlike the Ginzuishou the Ningen No Zou does more than just stores energy, it acts like a magical transformer boosting and even altering energy that is passed through it. The glow Genma saw was due to the energy from the Ginzuishou and Manganmaru being focused through it."

"Ginzuishou and Manganmaru? What are those? " asked Genma.

"Ginzuishou is the formal name of the Silver Crystal the power at the heart of the Moon Kingdom. The Manganmaru is a magical sword that will grant three wishes to who ever can pull it from the rock it is embedded in," said Setsuna.

Black Lady frowned, "That doesn't make sense. Wouldn't boosting the power of this Manganmaru make using the Ginzuishou somewhat redundant?"

"Actually no. For all its power the Manganmaru mainly affects the physical world and is quite limited on what it can do to people's minds and memories. By contrast as demonstrated in the aftermath with Queen Beryl the Ginzuishou can have profound effects on a person's memories but its effects on the physical world are somewhat limited."

"Ok, we now know what caused this mess; now how do we undo it?" asked Uranus angrily.

"That is the problem. I am not sure we _can_ undo it. The power of the Manganmaru was used to duplicate the effects of a martial arts technique known as the Oppenheimer Retributive Strike which takes the magic of Jusenkyo and mixes with Ki and Chi. The Ginzuishou was used to make some limited physical changes and alter the memories of the people effected so they would not freak out at their transformation. As Genma shows messing with Jusenkyo is dicey to begin with and General Yamato specifically designed the Oppenheimer Retributive Strike to make Jusenkyo passable from one generation to the next."

"Perhaps it would be clearer to them if they saw the actual technique. After all I was in that timeline for nine days," said Guardian Pluto.

"I agree though I have some misgivings on this. You never told us exactly what happened in that timeline," commented Setsuna.

"Some very unpleasant things happened in that other world, but given the situation it's time to face up to at least some of them."

Nodding in understanding Setsuna called up the Time Gates.

**---Begin Time Gates images, SDR timeline August 6, 1942--- **

The first image everyone saw was that of two Sailor Plutos one of whom was blocking a strike by the other with her Time Staff.

"Blast it! What in the blazes is wrong with you? I try to warn you of the greatest danger the Sailor Senshi have ever faced and your first reaction is to attack me," commented one Pluto.

"Of course. You claim the Black Moon Family is no threat to the past when obviously they are. You are either an impostor or are under some form of mind control, in either case you are the enemy," said the other Pluto swinging her staff again.

Suddenly a dragon shaped shadow pass over the two Plutos. They both looked up and saw a black dragon with US Air Force airplane symbols on its wings land on a hill that overlooked a city below and figure dismounted from the dragon's back. The attacking Pluto paused narrowed her eyes, "USAF? But this is August 6, 1942. The United States Air Force doesn't yet exist."

The two Plutos watched as a blue aura formed around the dragon and it spoke in a low but powerful voice, "People of Hiroshima. In another history three years hence 100,000 people died here. Today in this history barring some of you trying to commit suicide all that will die here is Japan's belief in racial, cultural, and spiritual purity," it said as the blue aura grew and started sparking.

"By the Silver Millennium that thing is generating energy that makes Little Boy look like a firecracker. I have got to stop it," said attacking Pluto as she turned and ran toward the dragon. She suddenly found herself in a chokehold by the other Pluto. "What are you doing? That thing is going to change history," she exclaimed.

"I don't think so. If I am right it is you and not the dragon who is trying to change history," stated the other Pluto.

"OPPENHEIMER RETRIBUTIVE STRIKE!" yelled the dragon and the two Plutos watched as a blue ball flew form the creature's hands and exploded over the city covering it in a wave of white energy.

"The people in that city they... they're no longer human," stammered the Pluto in the chokehold. The other Pluto nodded her head "August 6, 1942 and if I read the sun right I would guess 8:15 AM. General, I think you had some real emotional hang ups on karma."

The two Plutos were snapped out of their stunned vigil by a voice behind them. "All right people, that little technique of the General's is going to attract every Demon Hunter in Japan here like a magnet and our duty is to protect the people here from the misguided fools trying to save them. So snell! snell!" They both turned and saw a man in his mid 40s in a German style uniform. While the style was that of the SS the uniform was dark grey instead of black and where the SS should have been on the helmet was instead a Phoenix with the word Luftwaffe above it and the letters SDR beneath it. The man narrowed his eyes "Who are you? You both carry the Time Staff but you are not Sailor Nemesis."

"No they are not me, Generalfeldmarschall Richthofen," replied a familiar voice. The two Plutos turned to face Ranko the Time Staff in her hands jumping down from a Fei-Oh where three other people in dress style uniforms sat. Instead of a sailor fuku Ranko wore a grey uniform much like Richthofen's though inside this Phoenix was a crescent moon. "They are variants of the person I replaced. Ranma and I noticed a temporal disturbance and noticed one of these Plutos was trying to stop General Burakku Hiryuu while the other was restraining her."

"Who are you?" asked Sailor Pluto.

"Sailor Nemesis," replied Ranko crossing her arms, "My theory is that these two were engaged in a fight used their Time Staffs like quarterstaffs. The resulting initial exchange of energy would result in all kinds of problems up to and including uncontrolled time travel. So what is going on that you two are fighting?"

"I was trying to warn this version of myself at the Time Gates in the time of Crystal Tokyo about the danger Choukai posed to Crystal Tokyo and because I told her that the Black Moon Family couldn't change the past she thought I was an impostor and tried Death Scream me. When I absorbed that with a Shi-Yao-Chong she then tried to brain me with the Time Staff."

One of the figures jumped down from the Fei-Oh. As the Fei-Oh had the sun behind it, it was next impossible to see his features. "Choukai? Black Moon Family? Sensei-sama what is she talking about?" he asked in a disturbing familiar voice.

Releasing her counterpart from the chokehold Visitor Pluto addressed the German officer "She wouldn't know. The Black Moon Family are the descendants of people who refused to have their evil removed by Neo-Queen Serenity who attacked Crystal Tokyo in an effort to return to Earth. Their current misguided plan is to attack in the past to prevent Crystal Tokyo from forming in the first place."

"Mein Gott!" exclaimed the German officer "My sensei Saotome Ranma goes to all the trouble to prevent der Fuhrer from rising to power and now we find out that in one of our futures we have a fascist maniac named Neo-Queen Serenity to worry about."

The previously retrained Pluto gripped her Time Staff so hard her knuckles turned white and closing her eyes to try and keep her anger in check she walked up to the German officer. "Listen to me you. Don't you _dare_ compare Neo-Queen Serenity and her Sailor Senshi to Adolf Hitler and his goose-stepping Nazis," she yelled in the man's face.

"The Nazis existed in your world not this one. Also thanks to my Senshi I am a totally different Adolf Hitler," said the man angrily.

Time Gates Pluto opening her eyes and stared, "That is impossible. There is one past, one present, one future,"

"Now I am beginning to understand why Black Lady despised her mother and the Sailor Senshi enough to join the Black Moon Family" continued Visitor Pluto rubbing her head some more, "We've all become narrow minded self-righteous idiots."

"It's a trick," screamed Time Gates Pluto "Death Scream!"

"Shi-Yao-Chong," said Visitor Pluto in a tired voice as she watched the Death Scream and summoned creature consume each other. "That didn't work at the Time Gates in the 30th century what makes you think it is going to work here?"

"Die impostor," screamed Time Gates Pluto swinging the Time Staff at her counterpart who dodged the first series of blows.

"One of these Plutos has totally lost it," commented Sailor Nemesis.

"I agree. Men, restrain her before she hurts someone with that thing," yelled Generalfeldmarschall Richthofen.

Several soldiers flying tackled the enraged Pluto who promptly Death Screamed them. "Blast it! What is going to make you realize that things are not as you think they are," exclaimed her counterpart as she swung the Time Staff up. The next sound was a sickening crack as the Time Staff caught Time Gate Pluto under the chin knocking her head back. Two Plutos fell to the ground; one with her neck at a totally unnatural angle her now sightless eyes staring at nothing the other to her knees weeping. "Why wouldn't you listen. Why did you force me to kill you?"

Shaking his head sadly Generalfeldmarschall Richthofen knelt down to the other Pluto and closed her eyes. He then folded her hands on her chest and asked a priest and a rabbi to perform the Rites of the Dead for her and the men who had fallen trying to restrain her.

Visitor Pluto felt a hand gentle on her shoulder and looking up saw the face of Adolf Hitler. "She wouldn't listen. You're not our Hitler; this isn't our history," she babbled as Adolf pulled her to her feet.

"No it isn't," Adolf said as he looked into Visitor Pluto's eyes. "War is never pleasant but sadly as long as there are those who will abuse their power it is a necessity. One can take a personal loss in War two ways; crawl into a ball of anguish and self pity or strive to prevent similar things from happening in the future."

"I am Pluto the Guardian of the Time Gates and I choose the future," Visitor Pluto stated forcefully.

"Come then we have a city in emotional turmoil to see to."

**---End Time Gates images--- **

Setsuna stared as she dismissed the Time Gates. "Our obsession with preserving Crystal Tokyo wound up killing us," she said softly.

"The same could be true of Sailors Uranus and Neptune. That is why I wanted you to show them what finally happened between me and the other Pluto," said Guardian Pluto. "Ranma's arrival in the past woke us up early and we could not handle the fact he would create something better than Crystal Tokyo and killed ourselves."

"Why did Generalfeldmarschall Richthofen say that you broke down into near hysterics? You seemed to have been handling everything remarkably well," asked Ranma.

"That came later, when Neo-Fuehrer Serenity and her happy group showed up," said Guardian Pluto grimly, "They were versions of the Sailor Senshi from a timeline where the Nazis won WWII. They were doing their best to kill their Sailor Nemesis and blasted a good hunk of that world's Tokyo in the process. Neo-Fuehrer Serenity was killed by yet another version of Sailor Moon who called herself Queen Eclipse who seemed to know all of us," she said standing up and walking to the koi pond.

"Uranus, Neptune. Please don't freak out and try to attack me. Despite my cold water form I am still the Guardian of the Time Gates to Crystal Tokyo and there are still foes like Wiseman to deal with," Guardian Pluto said shoving her arm into the cold water. Uranus and Neptune gasped as Guardian Pluto turned into a duplicate of Setsuna's demon form. Guardian Pluto looked down at the image in the pond, "I am still going to have to get use to seeing you in the mirror when I use cold water," she said tiredly. Glancing at Uranus and Neptune she nodded, "Well your first impulse was not to attack so I think we are making some headway."

"Mind telling us how you managed to get that form?" prompted Ranma.

"That was the result of emotional shock. Actually being in a world where things turned out different because you used the power of the Time Gates caused me to lose it. The next thing I knew Sailor Nemesis was trying get me out of Nagasaki before General Burakku Hiryuu shot off the second Oppenheimer Retributive Strike. As you saw when Generalfeldmarschall Richthofen brought me back she wasn't successful."

Setsuna frowned putting her hand to her head, "What in the world?"

"Bring back the Time Gates. Something just came though," yelled Guardian Pluto. Nodding Setsuna gestured and the Time Gates reformed.

**---Begin Time Gates images--- **

In the midst of the time gates was the image of a tree that was obviously sickly. Next to the tree sat two green skinned people, one with blue hair and eyes with a flute and the other with red hair and eyes holding a deck of cards.

Suddenly a purple robed female figure appeared beside the tree and the two people jumped up. The figure raised its hand, "I am not here to fight you. I here to help you save the Makaiju," it said in a raspy female voice patting the tree.

Blue hair gripped his flute tightly. "How can you help?"

"A little jumpy aren't we, Seijuurou Ginga and Natsumi? But to answer your question by telling you what the Makaiju really needs. It does not need stolen life energy but rather than the energy of love," said the figure.

"How do you know who we are? And what do you mean by the energy of love?" asked Natsumi as she nervously fingered her Tarot deck.

The figure turned its head toward the two its face hidden by the hood of its robe. "You have no idea about what I am talking about. Do you?" The figure sighed as they both shook their heads. "Love is about when you really care for someone. Like feelings you two have for each other. But there are deeper kinds of love like that between a husband and wife or parent and their child."

"Husband? Wife? Parent? Child?" the two aliens asked the robed being who again sighed. "Perhaps it would be best if you went back to Earth and paid attention to the relationships down there instead of planning on draining life energy."

"But, our tree needs energy, or it will die!" said Natsumi.

"True. But the energy you are currently using is causing the tree to sicken that much faster. By not using that kind of energy you will gain the time you need to get the energy the tree really needs."

The two aliens looked at their sick tree and nodded. "All right. We'll try it your way. But who are you?"

"I have had many names over my long existence. You can call me the Golden Lord. And don't worry about that Wiseman nutcase who was trying to destroy the world, I took care of him _permanently_," said the figure as it disappeared.

**---End Time Gates images--- **

"Ooookaaaay. Anybody have any idea on who that was?" asked Ranma.

"I am afraid I do. Queen Eclipse called her a power crazed suicidal maniac. Her name is not Golden Lord but Kaiyanwang Paradox. Unfortunately other than hinting that in the future that timeline will ally with her to fight the Nazi world of Neo-Fuehrer Serenity Eclipse didn't say much about her.

"Well can we follow her back through the Time Gates and get information that way?" Nabiki asked annoyance clear in her voice.

"I've been trying but the problem is our 'Golden Lord' seems to have relay hopped from one set of successively younger Time Gates to the next. That means she is from an unbelievably distant future time," Setsuna shrugged her shoulders, "She could even be from the End of Time itself when the universe either collapses into a mammoth singularity or expands to the point that matter itself starts to fall apart. We are talking about tens of billions of years from now at a minimum. The best the Time Gates can do without help is one billion years into the past and perhaps one million years into the future tops."

"She said that she took care of Wiseman permanently," said Genma nervously.

Setsuna gestured at the Time Gates and an image of Wiseman laying on the floor of the Palace of the Black Moon formed, "Good grief," she said as she slowly stood up "It looks like she absorbed every bit of life energy he had! There is nothing there but a skeleton."

"Perhaps seeing her attack would give us some idea of what we are dealing with," said Ke Lun studying the image intently.

Setsuna shook her head. "Of course Ke Lun, you are right. Due to its connection with this future time passes at the same rate there as it does here in the present," Setsuna again gestured and the image in the Time Gates shifted.

**---Begin Time Gates images of Crystal Tokyo time--- **

It was an understatement to say that Wiseman was not happy about the way things were going. It was quite obvious that he was enraged.

"All that hard work and planning and all it took was the last of a race from another dimension and a martial artist to shove it right down the tubes," Wiseman ranted to himself, "I am going to have to act fast if there is going to be anything to salvage from this mess."

"Don't bother you are not going to be around long enough to do anything Wiseman. Or should that be Doom Phantom?" came a raspy female voice from the darkness.

Wiseman had barely turned to face the voice when he was impaled by what at first glance looked like the Time Staff. "Surprised? What's the matter never seen a weapon made entirely of Ki and Chakra before?" said a figure cloaked in a tattered purple robe. "As liches go, Wiseman, you are a real jerk," said Purple Robe as Wiseman tried to grab the Ki and Chakra formed weapon. "Time to do what should have been done nine centuries ago. Shi-Yao-Chong Happo Goju-en Satsu Revised," spat Purple Robe.

Wiseman's head snapped back knocking off his hood and revealing a skull long devoid of flesh with two red burning lights where the eyes had been in life. He then made a shuttering gurgling sound as his life force was pulled out of his body. "Even your will and the power of the Jakokusuishou is no match for the power of Kaiyanwang," laughed Purple Robe as the red glows that were Wiseman's eyes faded. She let the Ki and Chakra formed weapon dissipate allowing the skeletal body of Wiseman to fall to the floor while holding a glowing blob in her hand. "So ends the existence of Wiseman formally known as the Doom Phantom Earth's last mass murder and the father of the Black Moon family," she then released the blob. "Hopefully you reincarnate as something better. At least the servants of the Makaiju will be more reasonable," said the figure as it picked up the Jakokusuishou and faded away.

**---End Time Gates images of Crystal Tokyo time--- **

"Setsuna," said Ranma in a hushed voice. "That attack of hers sounded and looked like it came from the Sanjiyan Unkara Ganso Musabetsu Kakuto Ryu. But there was something well _wrong_ with the way she moved."

Setsuna looked at Ranma, "What do you mean something wrong in the way she moved?"

"I think my son is saying there was a certain lack of well flavor to the way she moved." said Genma, "No two martial artists move in the exact same way as each develops their own way of moving or flavor to a particular style. Her movements had none of that feel; if anything they looked mechanical. Like someone trying to duplicate something they saw without knowing one thing about basics behind the school they are using."

"More to the point it sounds like she is one of Creatures of Darkness that served Kaiyanwang," snarled Parvati as a faint red battle aura formed around her, "That makes her all the more dangerous."

"Excuse me I don't want to sound like I just walked in the middle of a film but I thought Kaiyanwang was our purple robed madwoman," stated Neptune.

"Kaiyanwang is a title not a name," explained Guardian Pluto, "Kaiyanwang Shiva is the one Parvati is talking about. Like Queen Beryl Kaiyanwang was imprisoned at a great cost. Unlike Queen Beryl he has agents in this world working to free him. In one future a servant called Choukai wiped out all the Sailor Scouts two years from now."

Before either Uranus or Neptune could respond Guardian Pluto scowled, "Blast, here we go again. Only this time she is in Hong Kong. What the blazes is she doing in Hong Kong?"

"One way to find out," said Setsuna as she again gestured at the Time Gates.

**---Begin Time Gates images of Hong Kong--- **

As the image sharpened they could see Purple Robe helping a badly beaten man. In front of them laid a woman chained to an altar with a backwards looking '3' painted on her bare belly. Standing aside the altar was a creature with the face of a gargoyle in a white robe holding a bloody sword. Aside him stood humanoid figures with insect looking faces but it was not clear if they were humans wearing masks or something else entirely. In the background in a Buddha position was a gigantic three eyed statue with fangs.

"I must congratulate you Ryo-ko," said Purple Robe in a tone better suited to talking about the weather, "You have built a temple of sacrifice to Kaiyanwang Shiva in the last place anyone would ever think of looking for it: the 32nd floor of the Royal Soarer Hotel with is supposedly only to have 30 floors in the middle of downtown Hong Kong. Hate to ruin your day but that Ningen No Zou you stole is a fake; the real Ningen No Zou is in Nerima district, Tokyo, Japan."

"What do you mean a fake?" yelled the Ryo-ko.

"Oh you thought that the fake I had my agents here make was the real Ningen No Zou? How amusing. Now if you would be such a good little servant of Kaiyanwang and release Ms. Mei-Hsing Lung as well as the rest of your virgin sacrifices I will be on my way."

"WHAT?!" bellowed the creature.

"Ok let me explain it in terms that even an idiot could understand. I had a copy of the Ningen No Zou made by some allies I made in this timeline and dumped it into Steve Lung's lap here," Purple Robe gestured to the beaten man. "I had hoped that this fake would bring Benares out into the open. Imagine my pleasant surprise when my agents found a situation that will solve part of my problem," Purple Robe paused.

"You see I have a bunch of lust demons who need for lack of a better term human playthings to vent their lust on. Since none of them are into necrophilia I cannot let you go and kill the virgins you have collected," looking at the woman on the alter Purple Robe continued. "While you would have been an excellent plaything Mei-Hsing I did promise your brother that I would save you. Oh well I believe my subjects will understand my reasoning," shrugged Purple Robe.

"Who are you that you think you can command one in the service of the great Kaiyanwang?" said the creature.

Purple Robe laughed as she formed a walking stick similar to Pai's "I have used many names and titles in my existence mostly borrowed from others. None of them really matter, as it is clear that you will fight me in this. So Cha-Lieh-Chong!" she said as she threw a bug in the creature's face.

The creature backed up as a few of the minions in crab masks looked on. Purple Robe generated another Ki-Chi weapon and lopped off a minion's head. "You need to really get better worshipers; this one lost his head in the heat of battle," Purple Robe said laughing at her little joke while everybody on the other side of the Time Gate winced.

"Kuan-Yaa. Rei-Syou. Cha-Lieh-Chong," said Purple Robe as she giggled like a school girl as each attack hit the creature while what was left of the minions ran like rabbits. "By the way I just gated in a few subjects who gated out with your virgins," she said as the creature rolled it eyes back up into its head from the pain. "You know this is better than if Ling-Ling had been here. She would have burnt down this place down. Seems Ms. Huang was a little too free with the firepower in that timeline."

The creature struggled to rise but fell back down. "So now you will kill me," it stated.

"No. I still have a few traits from my old days as a Sailor Senshi. I don't kill unless I have to. You can return home. By the way even with the real thing this ritual would have not worked anyhow."

"What kind of monster are you?!" Mei-Hsing said as her brother freed her, "How can you let this thing loose after it has killed so many innocent girls?"

"Because unlike you I know it had no choice. Just as Sailors Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto felt they had no choice when they killed my best friends and destroyed my family to get the items that made up the Holy Grail," Purple Robe said in a bitter tone that not even her artificial voice could hide, "That's how I know they understand why I had them be the first to service the needs of my lust demon subjects," she continued in a tone that made one almost see a sinister smile under the hood. On the other side of the Time Gates three Sailor Scouts had that old someone just stepped on your grave feeling followed by an icy chill down the spine.

"You know I think I will reveal who I am to Neo-Queen Serenity as my lust demons have their way with her and her Senshi. Though who would want to have their way with Sailor Mercury is beyond me. She tended to have about as much emotion as that statue. Perhaps a particularly desperate or horny lust demon," said Purple Robe to herself.

"Just who are you?" asked Steve Lung. "And what gives you the right to condemn women to a future of little more than rape slaves to a bunch of demons?"

Purple Robe's hand shot to her throat and she pulled an object from it. "Who am I?" she said in a voice everyone listening on the other end of the Time Gate immediately recognized. Usagi paled even before the figure removed her robes and recognized the Sailor Senshi uniform she wore despite the fact that the colors were all wrong. Where it should have been white the outfit was pitch black and where originally there had been blue there was now a shade of red that suggested the color of dried blood. But it was her face that frightened Usagi because it was one she saw in the mirror every day.

"Allow me to properly introduce myself. I am Tsukino Usagi or if you prefer Sailor Moon. And as for what give me the right I am the rightful ruler of this planet in one of its many possible futures," she said laughing as she faded into the timestream breaking the link the Time Gates had.

**---End Time Gates images of ** **Hong Kong---**

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	20. Chap 20 Lunar Eclipse

Chap 20 Lunar Eclipse

Ranma 1/2 is the creation of Rumiko Takahashi, 3x3 eyes (Sazan Eyes) is the creation of Yuzo Takada, Sailor Moon is the creation of Naoko Takeuchi. There are also a few cameos from other anime. All are used without permission. This fan-fiction isn't intended for commercial use but is rather a tribute to Ranma 1/2, 3x3 Eyes, and Sailor Moon.

Usagi simply sat staring at the empty space within the Time Gates for a moment. Finally she spoke or to be more accurately bawled her head off, "WAAAAHHHHAAAAA we're now fighting a evil version of me."

"Well Meatball Head is back to normal," commented Mars the anger she was feeling clear in her voice as she looked at Uranus and Neptune while Black Lady tried to calm her wailing mother. "Any you Outer Idiots have any ideas on how you screwed up so that Usagi turned into something that makes Queen Beryl look like a flipping girl scout?" Mars asked looking like she was ready to charbroil the Outers.

Setsuna looked down at the ground. "Sadly she gave us the answer to that question. Evidently in her timeline we let our efforts to obtain the mirror, sword and orb get totally out of hand with the result pushing her totally off the deep end."

"And as a result she is a servant of a sleeping Sanjiyan Unkara that took the lives of nearly everyone in the area to imprison. I think were were better off with the mass murdering walking corpse called Wiseman," said Nabiki rubbing her head, "That is assuming Sailor Psychopath was telling the truth about him."

"The Doom Phantom was a mass murder exiled to Nemesis some 900 years ago," commented Guardian Pluto. "So that much of what she said was true."

"There is another more frightening way to interpret her statement," said Genma softly.

"Ok Pops let's hear it," said Ranma.

"Kaiyanwang is a _title_ not a name, correct?" asked Genma.

"Yes. I think I see where this is going," said Parvati the nervousness clear in her voice.

"Perhaps it has been the nonstop chaos of the last couple of days but I don't get it," said Ranma.

"Simply put it is Kaiyanwang is dead. Long live Kaiyanwang," said Genma glumly.

"Pops," said Ranma in a soft and shaky voice "Do you have _any_ idea on _what_ you are saying?"

"I think I do. Of course she might have just claimed the title without taking care of Shiva, but given what she did to Wiseman I doubt it," said Genma.

"I was willing to fight Sailor Moon over the misguided concept of Crystal Tokyo so there is no way I am going to sit here and let this one raid Earth just so a bunch of over hormonal immoral demons can get their jollies," said Black Lady as her mother finally stopped crying.

"What I want to know is what happened that I turned out like that," said Usagi who sounded like she was ready to start crying again. Before anyone could respond the Time Gates started forming an image.

"Setsuna you doing that?" Guardian Pluto asked nervously.

"Unfortunately no I am _not_ the one doing this. The Time Gates are being directed by... Neo-Queen Serenity?!" Setsuna said surprised as a new image formed.

**---Begin Time Gates images--- **

In the lap of Usagi was Hotaru whose face was badly burned and with the other Inners in their civilian identities around her. Facing them were Sailors Uranus and Neptune. Standing off to one side closer to the Inners was Prince Demando and Black Lady.

"This young girl did nothing to harm you or anyone else and you tried to kill her!" yelled Usagi her voice filled with anger.

"She is the reincarnation of Sailor Saturn. For the world to live she must die," stated Sailor Uranus.

"That is crazy. You want to kill her just because she is the reincarnation of someone called Sailor Saturn? Where is the Justice in that?" asked Minako whose voice was also filled with anger as well as disgust.

"I'm afraid that Justice is the last thing on their minds," came a familiar voice. "After all in other history they were perfectly willing to kill Usagi's friends and family in their search for magical items that may have been hidden in their souls and more deaths would follow in their wake."

"Wiseman-sensei what do you mean?" stammered Usagi as she looked at a familiar and yet unfamiliar purple robed figure.

"This is all about the collection of three magic items: a sword, mirror, and garnet orb. When combined they form an even more powerful item the Holy Grail. Your quest has blinded you to the consequences of your actions; in one world you stopped at nothing not even killing Usagi's parents to get your precious magic items," said Wiseman in a cold voice. "In my world your Sailor Pluto twisted a gentle idealistic young girl into a borderline paranoid power crazed maniac."

"What kind of inhuman monsters are you?!" yelled Makoto as she took a step forward her face twisted into a mask of anger and disgust.

"All too human monsters. I'm sorry to say. All societies even Utopias have a dark side. They are the proof of the old Western adage that the road to Hell is paved with good intentions," Wiseman said angrily, "In a variant where Pluto panicked and killed me she later said 'What are a few lives against the wonderful future that will assured?'" Why stop at few lives? What not a few thousand, or better yet a few million, or perhaps _6 million_? Yes what are the lives of 6 million undesirables if it will mean an Utopic empire that will last 1,000 years," said Wiseman sarcastically "Perhaps we can call it something more fitting than Crystal Tokyo, say like _Third Reich_?" spat Wiseman.

"You can't really equate the rebirth of the Moon Kingdom to _that_?" asked an appalled Sailor Uranus.

"Why can't he?" yelled Usagi, "After all Neo-Fuehrer Serenity called her extension of the Nazi's rule Crystal Tokyo. In her attempt to secure her rule she killed 100,000 people in Tokyo and would have killed millions more if Queen Eclipse had not stepped in."

"You mean it was these two as well as Sailor Pluto that talked my mother into that moronic idea of 'either let me purge your evil or I will exile you to Nemesis'?" asked Black Lady angrily gesturing to Usagi.

"In your history, my dear, I doubt they were around long enough to talk your mother into anything. In this history Usagi acquired the Puzzle and never became Sailor Moon. Sailor Nemesis and I met each other years ago and decided that Usagi deserved better than what happened to her in my world."

"Wiseman-senshi, what happened to me in your world?"

"You and my predecessor Pharaoh Wiseman destroyed each other," replied Wiseman removing his hood revealing the features of a much older Saotome Ramna.

"Sensei-sami!" responded the girls.

"No, no," said Ranma Wiseman holding up a hand, "I am Saotome Ranma but not the one you know."

"You are a counterpart to Sensei-sami just like Sailor Moon is to me," said Usagi frowning.

"Yes and ironically of all the people who became Wiseman of the Planet Nemesis I seem to be the only one who is trying to save you. I have been looking for a way stop the needless conflict there was between the League and Crystal Tokyo."

"Wiseman, we both know the only way that can happen is to make sure there is no Crystal Tokyo in the first damn place," spat Usagi, "Life is about struggle. If there is no struggle then you are not living but existing," Usagi then stared at the two Outers, "regardless of the leader being an idealistic idiot or a fascist maniac."

"True, but the struggle must be in the achievement of a goal. Otherwise you have the mess we have in China of endless conflict."

"In other words you don't want this to go the same way," said Ami.

"Conflicts between the Inner and Outer Senshi of the Moon Kingdom always lead to disaster," said Wiseman Ranma.

"Are you saying we are the Inner Senshi? Have you lost your mind?!" yelled Rei.

"Boy and I thought I had a temper back in this time," said Akane as she walked into view.

"You're dressed like Sailor Pluto!" exclaimed Uranus.

"Very good, Ten'ou Haruka," smirked Wiseman Ranma who turned his attention to Sailor Uranus, "What's the matter my dear Kaiou Michiru? You look pale."

"You know who we are!"

"You know I think the shock has put them down to Sailor Moon's level of thinking," commented Akane-Pluto.

"Sailor Moon thinks?" replied Ranma Wiseman raising an eyebrow.

"Better than that excuse of a father of yours."

"Akane dear, an eggplant has more thoughts than Pops did."

"So does Sailor Pluto in most of the timelines we have seen. It is just that in one she went dumber than your father, and we have a suicidal, rape happy, history alternating maniac running around as a result."

"Who keeps messing around stirring things up until you start getting headaches," responded Ranma Wiseman, "How long has the happy little loony been showing this timeline?"

"Few minutes," responded Akane-Pluto as she stared right at the viewers at the other end.

"Another timeline she has her finger in?"

"You as a Wu, Ranko as a Sanjiyan Unkara, Pai as your sister rather than wife, Hiroshima and Nagasaki very different from what they are supposed to be…" Akane-Pluto trailed off.

"Queen Eclipse?" asked Usagi smiling.

"Her or a variant Paradox is working on."

"Now she is a version of me I would not mind meeting. Strong and firm, not a crybaby like most versions of Sailor Moon are," Usagi's eyes hardened as she stood and touched her left wrist causing a blade like object to spring from it, "but we are getting off topic. Now are you two loose cannons going to stand down or do my ShadowBeing friends get to beat some sense into your empty heads?"

"You don't understand…" began Sailor Uranus.

"It is you who don't understand, Swords of Revealing Light," The two Outers' eyes started getting wide as they hung there like flies in amber, "Now I have shut this down perhaps we can talk like sensible people."

"I am afraid that is going to be difficult," said Ranma Wiseman, "They have more of their memories than any of you did in my world, Millennium Queen."

The other Uranus paled, "Did you call her Millennium Queen?" she asked unable to move her arms or legs.

"Yes, does it mean something?" asked Ranma Wiseman concerned.

"Yes the Millennium Queen is the name of the person who helped Queen Beryl brought down the Moon Kingdom," snapped Uranus.

Wiseman Ranma put his head in his hand and shook it, "This is not turning into a good day."

"Ranma?" asked a figure that looked very much like Pluto in her cold water form.

"You should not have come here, Sa-chan. Your twin sister, Pluto, is dead in this history as she is in ours."

"I found out who our mother, the original Sailor Pluto, reincarnated as."

Wiseman Ranma smiled, "Great, Sa-chan. Who _did_ your mother reincarnate as?" asked

Satan glomped the Wiseman Ranma, "Mom, I missed you!" at which point the Time Gates went blank.

**---End Time Gates images--- **

"KAIYANWANG SERENITY!" exploded Pluto standing, "How dare you remove the memory of my twin sister!" Pluto then blinked, "Twin sister? Satan is my twin sister?"

"Uh, who is _Kaiyanwang _Serenity?" asked Sailor Moon.

"Kaiyanwang was a title used by the rulers of the Moon Kingdom until the grandmother of Queen Serenity," scowled Setsuna, "but how did we not remember that?"

"Because our minds and memories have been messed with, by Princess Serenity's misbegotten great grandmother! How the hell else?" screamed Pluto.

"Satan has been here longer than the time since the Moon Kingdom fell," responded Setsuna her face flush with anger, "but that was because there as an accident with the Time Gates. Satan and I were trying to figure out how to view alternate timelines…" Setsuna stopped narrowing her eyes, "That bitch she not only wiped out memories of my twin sister she wiped out memories that there even were alternative timelines and that the Time Gates could view them!"

Okuninushi blinked at the images he had seen "Would someone mind explaining just _what_ in the name of the spirit realm you are talking about?

"Satan is my twin sister," snapped Setsuna.

"That I gathered. What I mean is how she wound up in my reality before this Moon Kingdom of yours fell."

"The Time Gates allow you to physically travel through time."

Okuninushi signed. "Are you telling me this evil version of Sailor Moon has this same power?"

Guardian Pluto frowned, "Yes but it must be limited. Otherwise why hasn't she taken a more active role?"

"So you are saying she is not as powerful as she would have us believe," commented Ke Lun.

"Not that seems to be much help. She turned Wiseman into a shiskabob quickly enough," Petz of the Dark Moon family commented.

"She used a martial arts attack against someone who judging from the way he turned had no knowledge on how to defend himself," said Ranma, "For all we know she may be not more powerful magic-wise then Sailor Moon was when she fought Queen Beryl."

"I think I understand, Ranma," said Sham Pu, "You said she moved as if she had not _trained_ in martial arts but was merely copying a technique she saw."

Genma shook his head, "Not copy, mimic. To truly copy a martial art technique she would have to know martial arts and I saw nothing in the way she moved to suggest that."

"Genma is right, Sham Pu," Ke Lun commented, "She could have just as easily crafted some magic spells to look like martial arts techniques."

"I think is it is irrelevant as how powerful she is," said Cooan, "The woman is obviously insane and doesn't mind using deadly force to achieve her ends. Black Lady is right we have to fight her as it appears she is even more a powercrazed control freak than Neo-Queen Serenity is or will be or arrrggghhh. I hate time travel; it gives me a headache," Coorn finished her hands pulling on her purple hair in frustration.

Black Lady hugged her mother less she go into another crying fit but instead Usagi frowned in thought, "But how do we fight someone who knows everything I do and more, can travel through time, and has knowledge of other histories?" she asked.

"Sailor Moon is right. How do we fight someone who can move to a point in time where we cannot even counter attack? said Hirohito, "According to Wiseman Ranma she is the reason Japan is in the state it's in."

Setsuna shook her head "You forget I examined the Ningen No Zou. There were signature markers in the energy coming from the Time Gates and those markers clearly identified Sailor Pluto not Neo-Queen Serenity as being the directing force. Furthermore I found evidence that the signal came from a timeline similar to Guardian Pluto's. Sadly there is no real way to find out what timeline it actually came from," Setsuna frowned looking at the Time Gates "If her statements are true than it is clear that Neo-Queen Serenity became Kaiyanwang Paradox only after the Outers killed her family."

"That is something I don't understand," asked Mu Si adjusting his glasses. "How can these different histories be cross dependent on each other??

Guardian Pluto smiled sadly, "I think we can thank Kaiyanwang Paradox and quite possibly Ranma Wiseman for that. In the history I came from by the time I contacted Uranus and Neptune they were totally fixated on getting the sword, mirror, and orb regardless of the cost. It go so bad I had to manipulate several martial artists into the battle to prevent them from accidentally killing someone. It got so dangerous that I used a mirror to turn myself into a temporary Wu and so use my forbidden attack Dark Dome Close without killing myself in the process."

Guardian Pluto then chuckled wryly as she looked at the Time Gates, "Now I understand that I was just plain lucky, I now see my fear at changing things could have resulted in things turning out much worse. In _me_ turning out much worse," Guardian Pluto said putting her head in her hands and crying.

Setsuna comforted Guardian Pluto. "You are forgetting that Sailor Pluto was part of my future as well," Setsuna then frowned, "Now what is she up to? Well this latest little stunt is ... in front of the Tendo Dojo?!" Gesturing she dropped the barrier around the Tendo household and ran out front. All the while the Time Gated kept showing images.

----------------------

Setsuna got to the front yard just in time as a burst of light appeared. In the midst of the light was Usagi dressed in traditional Sanjiyan Unkara robes a long scar on her left cheek a golden pyramid shaped puzzle hanging from her neck and a man in white samurai armor.

"Give it up, Millennium Queen," yelled the white samurai "I the great samurai Rising Sun will defeat you and bring the Coprosperity Sphere to all of Asia."

"Wake up and smell the coffee. You are fighting a war lost 40 years ago!" yelled Millennium Queen.

"Lies!" said Rising Sun just as a youma slammed into the ground between them. "In the name of the Ganso Musabetsu Kakuto Ryu I destroy your evil. Happo Goju-en Satsu!" Everyone turned to see a man dressed in a the uniform of a five star general the letters SDR clearly on the lapel of the uniform his face hid by the hat, around his neck was an ornate tauk and below that hung the Iron Cross holding a five yen coin that drained the Ki energy of the youma. Millennium Queen looked at the figure, "Grandmaster, given the Ki of Tokyo I would say we are not in our Japan anymore!"

Before anyone could move a man dressed all in black with a wide brimmed hat and wearing a silver mask slammed into the ground at the spot where the youma had been, "Give it up Disrupter, you are no match for Valkyrie Moon the embodiment of the Third Reich!" exclaimed an Usagi dressed like a Wagner Valkyrie.

"Third Reich?" hissed Millennium Queen a red battle aura flaring around her while the Grandmanster clenched his left hand into a fist as he formed a deep red battle aura. "This may not be our timeline but its Ki doesn't match yours either Valkyrie Moon," he said in a growling voice as he raised the hand with the coin, "Fall before the true power of racial diversity Nazi, the Ganso Musabetsu Kakuto Ryu! Happo Goju-en Satsu!" he screamed as he started draining Valkyrie Moon's energy.

"That voice, it is impossible!" stammered Valkyrie Moon as she fell to her knees.

"Impossible? Nothing is impossible for a practitioner of Ganso Musabetsu Kakuto Ryu. Not even the transformation of a man whose fate was originally that of a power crazed homicidal madman into one of a truly honorable warrior," said Grandmaster his voice rising in volume and his German accent getting thicker. "Finally after all these years of struggling with a Time Loop Sailor Nemesis, our allies, and I will finally bring my counterpart's twisted rule to an end and liberate your world."

"You should fight more and talk less, General Hitler. Today I, Rising Sun, will defeat you!" screamed Rising Sun as he ran toward Grandmaster.

"General Hitler? That is still my rank and name but these days everyone simply calls me Grandmaster. So the great warrior Tojo was working on was in reality a Blue Thunder wantabe. How pathetic," said Grandmaster as he flipped the coin between two fingers and put his hands in front of him forming a circle with his thumbs and index fingers. "Happo No Yen Coin Return!" he said blasting Rising Sun into both the ground and dreamland.

"I will..," started Valkyrie Moon just as Millennium Queen's battle aura changed from red to blue in color. "Go down hard like the racist subhuman garbage you are Nazi! Moko Takabisha!" Valkyrie Moon then joined Rising Run on the ground and in dreamland.

The Grandmaster nodded approving and removed his hat. The reporters gasped for there despite the white hair were the unmistakable features of Adolf Hitler, "Excellent application of two rules of the School," he said as we walked over and examined both Valkyrie Moon and Rising Sun. "Turn negative situation into a positive force and take out your enemy as quickly as possible."

"So this is the precursor to Neo-fuehrer Serenity," said a figure as it stepped into the light revealing Saotome Ranma in a four star general's uniform wit the letters SDR on one lapel. "Pity we cannot simply end it here."

"We will need her around when the invasion goes forth," Grandmaster shrugged, "Just as we found out taking out Mao was not a good thing. That resulted in a 40 year power struggle that has left nearly one billion either dead or no longer human."

General Saotome frowned, "That and the fact our little fascist's timeline has had its finger in our world up to the armpit thanks in part to the resulting chaos of us bring down Mao. Sadly the Time Gates are hindered in viewing something involving something so similar to the Items on such a grand scale."

"Sensei-sama don't berate yourself. Even my counterpart was not crazy enough to try to intentionally duplicate the Items, only certain aspects of them. How were you supposed to know that China would produce some who were that crazy or power hungry? Now we have an army of largely will less drones that only respect power," the Grandmaster then smiled, "But even there as we did before we have opened their eyes to the wonders of the true Aryan race."

General Saotome chuckled, "The true Aryan race, the Sanjiyan Unkara. But as with mortal humans not all are good."

"True but Himler's revelation undermined the subhuman Thules efforts to portray any one mortal human race as Ayran race," said Genadmaster his eyes burning with fanatical light, "For knowing that they were dying out the Sanjiyan Unkara bestowed _every_ race of mortal humanity with a portion of their power so that one day humanity would progress beyond even their power."

General Saotome nodded and looked at the out cold figure of Rising Sun, "So this is the attempt of our Japan's Tojo to create a perfect warrior. A sword wielding buffoon unworthy of the title Samurai."

"In our world," said the Millennium Queen gesturing to Valkyrie Moon, "According to Grandmaster-sama he is actually dangerous in her world."

"Well I think we can figure out who brought us here and we both know if true the why is unimportant," Grandmaster Hitler turned toward Setsuna and wryly smiled, "Been a long time, my dear pupil Guardian Pluto. Mind telling us what is going on here?"

"It's very simple. I wanted you to see the third timeline that inspired me to bring your histories together," came a familiar voice.

Everybody turned and there standing in a variation of Queen Serenity's robes was another Usagi. "Oh I would think you would happy to see me."

"Neo-Fuhrer Serenity, Neo-Queen Serenity, and Kaiyanwang Paradox," Grandmaster said the anger nearly dripping from his voice with each name, "How can anyone so decent and good in my own world become so twisted in so many others?"

"It is strange that you lump us all together. I have been helping you fight the Nazis in the Disruper's timeline and I am not the version that blasted downtown Tokyo in 1942 and killed 100,000 people in the process."

"You are all messed up. Neo-Fuhrer Serenity killed those people in her efforts to kill her Sailor Nemesis, Neo-Queen Serenity was happily banishing people who did not submit to her will-draining brainwashing to the solar system's outermost planet which was worse than a death sentence, and then there is you who sees the Distrupter's timeline and worlds like it as an all you can eat buffet for your demon subjects. For all your supposed power you did nothing to prevent the Nazi from winning and you have seen mucking around there since 1939! Know this, I will insure no version of your twisted fascist Crystal Tokyo is part of my future," said Grandmaster pointing his finger at Paradox.

"Little late, Grandmaster. My Crystal Tokyo isn't part of _any_ of your futures. Besides even my power has its limits; making a certain person from the 1980s go back in time to become Sailor Nemesis in 1939 locked in certain big events. That is the problem with Time Spirals; they do not give you much in the way of flexibility."

"You are nothing, Kaiyanwang Paradox, without the power of the long dead Moon Kingdom to back you up. Mark my words one day I find the secret to your power and shut you and similarly twisted versions of Princess Serenity down!" yelled the Millennium Queen.

Paradox burst out into a laugh, "You will learn that secret but I am afraid you will not like the price. No, not at all."

Paradox then gestured to herself, "Besides it is not like I want to conquer the world like Neo-Queen or Neo-Fuehrer Serenity did. I simply want to provide the few unchanged demon subjects that I have with the basic needs of life: females for my lust demons, evil beyond redemption human for the few that still need to eat human flesh, and other things that only histories like those of the Nazis and Neo-Fuehrer Serenity can provide."

"Give it up, Paradox. I know about your efforts to capture Outers you felt were out of control for your lust demons. Some of them had not really harmed anyone but you kidnapped them and then had them raped until they barely knew their own names. Most people see you or remember Neo-Fuehrer Serenity and think the Moon Kingdom was some kind of dystopian nightmare."

"All the while portraying Neo-Queen Serenity as an idealist airhead manipulated by a long dead evil Kingdom," chuckled Paradox.

"Until I actually met Queen Serenity I will not make any judgments on the Moon Kingdom," snapped Millennium Queen.

"But you will meet her and then you and your friends will destroy the Moon Kingdom," grinned Paradox.

"Thanks you your so great guidance no doubt," replied Millennium Queen, "You never lie but you have access to an infinity of timelines. I don't doubt that you have set things up so that in one future we do go back and do destroy a Moon Kingdom but that does not mean it is the Moon Kingdom that created any of the Sailor Senshi we are familiar with."

Paradox narrowed her eyes, "One future? Try _all_ your possible futures, Millennium Queen. I have set it up so you are on a road with no turns."

"I don't doubt that you firmly believe that, Paradox. Just as the Allies of this world needed Stalin we needed you," said Grandmaster, "As bad as you are my counterpart is worse. It was a choice of Evils allying with you, and I have never been happy about it, Paradox. One day we find a way to get to your time and bring your twisted rule to an end," growled Grandmaster.

Paradox chuckled, "You are welcome to try but I should tell you I have selected an alternate Crystal Tokyo to invade as my old home has finally stopped being useful. But that is all you get, have fun," she said disappearing.

Setsuna looked around at the collection of people around her. "Great she didn't even tell me how to get you people home. Not only is Paradox evil but she is also stark raving nuts."

"That is not a problem. Our Pluto passed on her knowledge and power and our Sailor Nemesis decided it was best if others had that knowledge. You don't travel to a timeline where the Nazis not only existed by won WWII who have been trying to invade your world for nearly 35 years without picking up a few tricks," said Grandmaster.

"That is all well and good but what about the fascist fruit loops?" Setsuna said gesturing with her thumb.

"They will be out for hours. Hopefully we will all be home before then," said Grandmaster as he formed a bright blue ball of Ki energy in his hand.

Millennium Queen nodded and pulled the top off of her staff letting out a man-sized Takuhi. "Takuhi pick them up gently. As the bird-demon picked up each of the two forms in a claw Millennium Queen turned to face General Saotome, "Now about us getting home..."

General Saotome smiled and changing into Ranko gestured for them all to follow her. Recognizing the newsworthiness of what had happened many of the reporters also followed. Grandmaster smiled at the sight of the Time Gates his action mirrored in the images displayed there. "Perfect. Sensei-sama will be able to use these."

"I thought that given there are worlds without end, histories without number that finding one particular history would be impossible," said Setsuna.

"Normally you would be right, but and this is important, our timelines have been interacting with each other for decades," said Ranko. "The situation in our Asia has prevented the full assault needed to end the Nazis rule. Fortunately things are stabilizing enough that we can attempt one crippling blow but the timing as with our planned D-Day has got to be flawless."

Millennium Queen looked at the Grandmaster. "I am familiar with worlds in different dimensions as well as alternate histories but I wondering why of all the worlds Paradox picked ours."

Grandmaster humorlessly chuckled, "So far the common thread in the timelines she is directly involved with are the Ningen No Zou, some aspect of the old Shadow Games being present, and the last remnants of the Silver Millennium all being connected to each other."

"If she had not stated otherwise I would think she set things up so that other Himler found both the Ningen No Zou and the Millennium Rod," grumbled General Saotome.

"Only your knowledge of the ShadowRealm prevented the Nazis from taking the US," Disrupter said the distorting effect of his mask not hiding his gratitude, "Did you ever find out what happened to Pegasus J Crawford?"

"No, he simply disappeared after our Himler acquired the Millennium Ring in 1922. Everyone assumed that the Thules had eliminated him as a threat to their efforts in driving a wedge between the advancing races of humanity and the true Ayran Race, the Sanjiyan Unkara. The fact that the Millennium Eye was recently acquired by Maxamillion Pegasus makes me wonder if Crawford like my sensei was from another history," he finished his voice indicating some annoyance.

Walking up to the Time Gates General Saotome nodded, "I have never really trusted Paradox and I trust her even less now. Her help is obviously like Stalin's in this world because it serves her own agenda."

"I could care less about her motives," snapped the Disrupter, "Paradox brought your world in to help my world especially General Heidler. If only my world's Nazis had not gotten to one of the Millennium Items and then these new allies they would have been crushed long ago."

Setsuna nodded grimly, "Nothing to be done but to go on ahead. Just tell me what to do."

"You?" chuckled Ranko, "My dear Setsuna, I have been using the Time Gates to go to alternate histories for decades. We don't have time for amateur hour," she said as the Time Gates settled down showing an image of Juubangia Junior High School with a Rising Sun flag flying in the breeze.

"Takuhi, let Valkyrie Moon go. She has to go home too," Millennium Queen said grimly as she grabbed Valkyrie Moon by the front of her outfit.

"Do you _have_ to return her too?" asked the Disrupter in an annoyed tone.

"Yes if for no other reason than to keep her friends from invading this world," said Millennium Queen as she pulled back a fist, "Have a nice and _painful_ landing you fascist creep," Millennium Queen growled punching her counterpart in the chest hard. The sickening crack of bones breaking was followed by some more when Valkyrie Moon hit the ground on the other side of the Time Gates. Everyone winced at the brutality of the punch.

"Three broken ribs, left leg with a compound fracture, and left shoulder dislocated. I don't think she is going to be fighting you any time soon," said the Grandmaster in a disapproving tone. "Usagi, when we get home we are going to have a serious talk about the proper use of one's power," The Grandmaster than turned to the Disrupter. "As I said Paradox is playing you. We are nearly ready to come and hit the Nazis with a fighting force that will defeat them. You do have other options than depending on Paradox."

"No I do not. Every world has its problems. Those of Paradox can be solved by the problems of mine. Win-Win for both of us. Besides I need to pay the Nazis back for killing my family," said the Disrupter removing his mask. A few people gasped as they saw the face of Yamato Hirohito revealed, a long gash going through a now sightless left eye. "This is more than simply liberating my country; this is a blood feud between me and the Nazis," he said replacing his mask. "You should have not been so hard on her. Now I am going to have to wait until she heals before I can have her meet Paradox's subjects," he said as he stepped through the Time Gates.

"Grandmaster, he has fought the dragon far too long," Millennium Queen said frowning.

Grandmaster nodded his head, "I have seen it building over the years and now he is totally irrational and he does not even realize it," the Grandmaster's features then became a mask. "As I said before from that punch it is clear you need some more intense training."

Millennium Queen hung her head, "Yes Grandmaster, I realize that I have shamed not only your school but that of your Sensei as well."

"Divergence January 1, 1880," said Ranko as another image of Juubangia Junior High School formed.

Ranma straightened up and stared at the image, "Guys... Look at the flag!"

With the exception of two people everybody stared in total shock at the American flag fluttering in the breeze just above the flag of Japan. "What in the world?!" asked a dumbfounded Nabiki.

Millennium Queen cocked her head to the side "What's wrong with them? They act like they have never seen an American flag before."

Mercury looked at her computer's read out. "Oh we've seen them. But normally not flying from school buildings in Japan," she commented.

Millennium Queen got a confused look on her face, "Why not? What other flag would the 52nd state of the United States be flying?"

"THE WHAT?!?" exclaimed a good dozen voices. The Grandmaster smiled "Ranma and I didn't realize just what kind of impact we made on General Yamato until his surrender speech. However some rabid racist commented because Japan was not part of the US no one would have to worry about General Yamato becoming president. The Diet reacted to this comment in the worst was possible and the next thing anybody knew the US suddenly had itself a new territory. I think that the only way the US accepted the situation was the fact that the civil war in China spread turning the whole region into one big war zone which still rages even after 40 years. Eventually Japan became a state in the mid-1960s which has had interesting effects on the culture of the continental US."

Ranko shook her head, "One lone idiot and all our plans go down the tubes. Eliminating Japan as a country was not part of the plan, but with the Warlord of the Week situation that has developed perhaps it was for the best."

"Perhaps, but I would rather have an idea better than having the US, ShadowRealm Republic, Musk Empire, and Phoenix Nation continuing to carve up China like a turkey. But we can finally end this 40 year on-again off-again blood bath by taking the battle to the Nazis themselves. Come on. Let us go home," said the Grandmaster extending his hand and the remaining visitors stepped through.

"So what was the purpose of that dog and pony show?" asked Mars annoyed.

"I think that was more than a dog and pony show," said Jupiter, "I have a ugly feeling that for a variety of reasons we have not seen the last of those timelines. I imagine that all of them could give us problems in the future."

"Well I think we have a new problem in the here and now," said Genma pointing to the Ningen No Zou which started levitating.

"This cannot be good," said Ranma.

"Think so? Like what was your first big clue, brother?" grumbled Parvati.

"As you said yourself Genma it is so much better to give than receive," came Paradox's voice from the Time Gates.

Happosai's eyes widen in realization, "Everyone get out of here. She is going to try and send _us_ through time," he yelled jumping up and running for all he was worth out of the backyard.

"Not all of you. That would be too much even for me. Just three of you for another but not unknown timeline. Who to send, who to send. Ah yes," she finished as a mammoth bolt of energy shot from the Time Gates blinding nearly everyone before hitting the hovering Ningen No Zou sending three people on a trip to what might have been.

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	21. Chap 21 Time Cubed

Chap 21 Time Cubed

Ranma 1/2 is the creation of Rumiko Takahashi, 3x3 eyes (Sazan Eyes) is the creation Yuzo Takada, and Sailor Moon is the creation of Naoko Takeuchi. All are used without permission. This fan-fiction isn't intended for commercial use but is rather a tribute to Ranma 1/2, 3x3 Eyes, and Sailor Moon.

[Author's note: It is interesting on note how well up to a certain point the Ranma 1/2, 3x3 eyes and Post Black Moon Family Sailor Moon continuities can coexist.

Guardian Pluto pulled herself off the ground shaking her head. "Well looks like I am one of the lucky winners of Kaiyanwang Paradox's budget trip through time game. Seems I am still in Nerima but I wonder _when_ in the blazes I am."

Guardian Pluto suddenly felt herself being grabbed as a voice yelled practically in her ear. "Shampoo my love!"

"Yep Nerima all right. Mouse put on your glasses you idiot," Guardian Pluto said calmly.

Adjusting his glasses Mouse backed up, "You're not Shampoo. You are a demon."

"No I am worse than a demon, I am a royally pissed off half Sanjiyan Unkara who is going to PUNCH OUT YOUR LIGHTS!" she said hauling off and punching Mouse in the face. "Ah that didn't get me home but it felt so good to punch that idiot out," Guardian Pluto commented over the now quite out cold Mouse. "Better take this moron home. I wonder if this is the timeline Setsuna told me briefly about. If so then the Ke Lun here is going to get a very unpleasant surprise."

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Yakumo shook his head. "Great, first I get turned into some sort of walking soulless corpse, get dragged into something weirder than the Twilight Zone, and now to top it all off I have been thrown into another timeline," looking around he frowned, "This doesn't look like either the Nerima or Shinjuku Ward of Tokyo. So WHERE AM I NOW?!" he yelled unknowingly echoing the words said across countless timelines by a certain continually lost martial artist.

"Ah, a new pure heart crystal for my masters," said a female figure that smelled of diesel as it grabbed at Yakumo's chest. "What?! No pure heart crystal. That is impossible!"

"Pure heart crystal? That means you are one of that Pharaoh 90's summoned daimons. Well here is something else for you ugly. Tou-Chao!" Yakumo yelled hitting the ground with his open hand. The invisible bug cut three long tracks through the concrete to the monster and kept going. The monster promptly fell down turning back into a small truck while a wispy demon spirit left the remains.

"I don't believe it, he effortlessly defeated that thing," said a familiar voice. Yakumo turned and smiled at the figures standing above him. "Usagi am I glad to see you and the Sailor Senshi. Could you get Sailor Pluto, Meiou Setsuna or whatever name she goes by to get me home?"

Sailor Mars frowned and pointed to Yakumo, "Just who are you and how do you know who we are?"

Yakumo laughed a little and rubbed the back of his head, "He he forgot about that. Well you see I am from other timeline...

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Sham Pu quickly realized she was in the Shinjuku part of Tokyo again. Grumbling several choice curse words in Mandarin she considered her options. Given that Paradox had said that she was sending three people to some _known_ alternative timeline and she was now in Shinjuku suggested that this was the timeline in which Yakumo was Parvati's rather than her Wu. Unfortunately that summed up her knowledge of this timeline other than that somewhen in it Pai had been given the equivalent of the Xi Fa Xiang Gao with shampoo Number 411, a condition she had for four years. Shrugging her shoulders Sham Pu went in the direction of Yakumo's school; it was as good as any place to start.

When she got there she saw a frog demon looking like the one Ranko destroyed in China complete to being dressed in a trenchcoat. In his arms was Yakumo's girlfriend Natsuko with the top front of her school uniform ripped off and Yakumo standing on what has once been a bridge. "Those who not have power not deserving of the mark of Wu," he said sinking his fangs into Natsuko's neck.

"Stop! Natsuko doesn't know anything about this. I will do anything you want, just leave her alone," yelled Yakumo.

"Where is the Sanjiyan Unkara?" asked the frog demon.

Before anyone could react Pai's staff flew out knocking Natsuko from the thing's grasp, "Such arrogance from a filthy Gesu!" intoned Parvati's cold voice.

'Time to stop being an observer and be a martial artist' thought Sham Pu jumping up on the rubble so that she was closer to the demon than Parvati was.

"Sanjiyan," intoned the frog demon looking at Parvati.

'Hope I do this right; _this_ Parvati doesn't know me.' thought Sham Pu "Gesu you wanted one Sanjiyan? Well..," Sham Pu continued opening her third eye and forming her own staff, "you've got two!"

Parvati backed up slightly, an expression of startled amazement on her face. Sham Pu smiled her most nasty smile, "Princess Parvati IV and I are feeling generous today. We'll left you live if you leave now and not bother either of us again."

"At last I found Sanjiyan. Now I will feed," yelled the frog demon as it jumped toward Sham Pu.

"If you are merely hungry Gesu I could give you some nice Chinese cooking," Sham Pu said hoping her voice had the right mixture of coldness and sarcastism. "Rei-Syou revised."

The frog demon fell back down the rubble pile slightly singed by the power of the lightning snake, "You were lucky to have chosen me to attack, Gesu," Sham Pu said not keeping the disgust she was feeling out of her voice "I doubt that Parvati there would have let you live. Even if I was still human you would be no real threat which is why I am so forgiving, but even I have my limits, Gesu. I give you one last chance, leave or die."

The frog demon shook his head, "Once human? How?"

Sham Pu laughed, "You are such an amusing Gesu. I thought the power of Jusenkyo was well known. Did you think we Sanjiyan would create a way to become human if there wasn't a way back? Did you think we Sanjiyan would only have one way to become human. So many pools of transformation, so many choices."

"I want immortality of Sanjiyan. You will tell me where I find Jusenkyo," said the frog demon.

"Is that was this is all about? How pathetic," said Sham Pu mockingly, "You mean to tell me you shambled your way all the way to Tokyo, Japan when the goal you sought was in the midst of the Bayankala Mountain Range, in the Qinghai Provence of China?" Sham Pu shook her head, "Tell me is stupidity common in your family or are you just the dumb one?"

The frog demon shook with rage, "I am not stupid and I am not going to China when the goal I seek is right here!" he yelled again leaping at Sham Pu.

'Perfect. I revealed the existence of Jusenkyo to Parvati and got this fool angry enough to attack me. Everything is going according to plan.' Sham Pu smiled, "For one desiring immortality you are certainly eager to die. For amusing me I will make your death a quick painless one. Rei-Syou. Kuan-Yaa. Cha-Lieh-Chong. Tou-Chao,"

Parvati's jaw dropped in amazement as four powerful magical attacks slammed into the frog demon one right after another. Needless to say where the frog demon had been there was only a black smear. "Princess Parvati, what brings you to Japan?" asked Sham Pu as she turned her gaze to Parvati.

Parvati blinked at the other Sanjiyan Unkara, "How did you do that?! It is impossible to do those attacks that close together. Also I never had seen you before how do you know my name?" she asked somewhat annoyed.

'Ok Sham Pu, Parvati is no fool so you better take what you know of your world and spin a believable tale.' Sham Pu thought as she chuckled, "My people revere you Honored One so when I won the tournament and none of you came to give a blessing to use the Pool of Female Sanjiyan Unkara I in my pride came looking for you. Instead when I arrived in the Sanjiyan Holy Land I triggered a message you left behind telling me how one mad Sanjiyan Unkara had destroyed your people," Sham Pu paused trying to read if Parvati was believing the tale she was weaving. Giving up on trying to read Parvati's expression Sham Pu continued.

"Fortunately while I was there I met an Honored One from Japan who had also been worried about the loss of contact. She saw that I was a skilled martial artist and was startled when I turned down her offer to become her Wu. I then told her of how I had won the tournament and was looking for a blessing to use the Pool of Female Sanjiyan Unkara. She didn't believe that such magic existed so I told her that if the pool didn't do what I said it did she could have me as her Wu," Sham Pu giggled, "I'm sorry Honored One but the shock on her face when I came up as a fellow Sanjiyan Unkara was priceless. Sadly the mortals of Japan were isolating themselves so I could not visit her for a long time and then her visits stopped shortly after Commodore Perry arrived. I thought what it was due to the rapid changes he had forced on the mortals there but when after WWII ended she still did not visit I decided to come here to see what happened. I sensed you and thought you might know the local access point to our world."

Parvati looked at Sham Pu critically, "This is the first time I have ever heard of Jusenkyo. You implied that there was a way to become human there. So how did I not know if it?"

Sham Pu sighed, "Likely because Jusenkyo in of itself is not permanent. It causes you to shift between forms depending on water temperature. While my human form doesn't age it has nowhere near the stamina my Sanjiyan Unkara form does. But the more I train in martial arts the stronger _both_ of my forms get, which is how I can cast magics that would leave an untrained Sanjiyan Unkara collapsing from exhaustion. Jusenkyo would give you the form and weakness of a human but it would not remove your immortality. And with warm water you would still become a Sanjiyan Unkara."

"So you are saying that Jusenkyo would not be as effective a method in becoming human as the Ningen No Zou," Parvati stated.

Sham Pu nodded as Parvati considered something, "Your ability to cast spells quickly is due to martial artist training? Could you train me? I am afraid that my Wu is just slightly above useless."

Sham Pu frowned, "I would prefer if you used the Pool of Young Girl before I trained you. I found out long ago that the benefits of marital arts training increase a 100 fold if it is done in human form. There is something about a Sanjiyan Unkara's use of Ki and Chakra that makes it far too easy for them to do martial arts," Sham Pu smiled at Yakumo, "Of course we could would have your Wu use the Pool of Female Sanjiyan Unkara and have him make your human side his or rather _her_ Wu. That would allow me to train you in more powerful techniques all the sooner."

Parvati looked at Yakumo with disgust, "If you think that even for a moment I am going to let Pai become this fool's slave you are out of your mind!"

Sham Pu scowled, "That is one thing that you will have to change _Parvati_ if you become my pupil. You and Yakumo will have to treat each other as _equals_ in battle. But if you still want a master-slave relationship you can still have it in the bedroom," she smiled.

Two of Parvati's eyes widened while her right human eye developed a twitch. "In the bedroom?!" she practically screeched. "Why in the name of my people's Holy Land would I want to mate with... with _that_?!" she sputtered pointing to Yakumo.

"Well I admit he is somewhat of a fixer upper right now. But in a century or two some kinky stuff in the bedroom will certainly help keep it from becoming boring," Sham Pu smiled enjoying the expressions Parvati was making.

"Hey it's not like that, I think of Pai like a sister," Yakumo sputtered.

"Pai? Ah you have nickname for your Sanjiyan Unkara, how cute. Well Wu, if there is someone you really care about we can make her Sanjiyan Unkara as well. There is more than enough water at Jusenkyo," Sham Pu said as she opened her staff letting out another Takuhi. She then took out a piece of paper, wrote something on it and handed it to the bird demon. "Takuhi I want you to go to Jusenkyo and bring back two casks of water. One from the pool of Sanjiyan Unkara, which is the only covered pool in the valley and the other from pool of young girl. The note I wrote will instruct the Guide there to show you what pool it is. Now go."

Sham Pu watched at the bird-demon took flight. 'What are you doing?" asked Yakumo.

"It much faster to bring you the water than have you hike all over China to Jusenkyo. Parvati will get the best of both worlds. She will become human and yet retain all the power of a Sanjiyan Unkara. We will also have the means to make you Sanjiyan Unkara so she will stop treating you like something she stepped in," Sham Pu said as Parvati closed her forehead eye and let Pai deal with the crazy Sanjiyan Unkara. It was not like there really was any water that could turn someone human much less some that would turn her Wu into a Sanjiyan Unkara.

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"Hello welcome to the Neko Hanten," said Shampoo automatically as a figure entered her grandmother's restaurant. He smile dropped the minute she saw what the figure carried. "Mousse," she frowned.

"Yep. Magoo-sama here mistook me for you. So I cold clocked the blind idiot and brought him home," said Guardian Pluto as she walked to an empty place and dumped Moosse to the floor. "Now if you must excuse me I need to do some things before I go to the Tendo Dojo and met Ranma."

Shampoo narrowed her eyes, "Panda-man not make you fiancée of Airen?"

Guardian Pluto smiled softly, Shampoo's reaction had confirmed her feeling as to what timeline Paradox had sent her to. But she had only the most minimal details on that history and no idea as to _when_ in that year's insanity she was. "No I am not a fiancée of Ranma by that idiot Genma or anyone else. I am something Ranma needs far more - an ally, a true friend," Guardian Pluto then hardened her face and opened her wings causing Shampoo to gasp.

"A little warning. I am bringing a relation of Ranma's into this mess who is not going to let you, that shriveled up troll of a great grandmother of yours or anyone else control or hurt Ranma anymore," Guardian Pluto said as she exited the restaurant and flew up into the sky.

About half an hour later a beautiful woman dressed in badly made white armor knocked on the door of the Tendo Dojo her face stern. Kasumi answered the door and the woman's expression softened into a smile. "Hello I am looking for Saotome Ranma or his sister Ranko."

Kasumi's smile wavered slightly, "Ranma is out on a training trip and while we have a Ranko here her family name is Tendo not Saotome."

The woman's smile dropped immediately and she stormed into the house her face full of fury. "Saotome Nodoka! Where are you, you heartless witch?"

From between Ranko and Mr. Panda Nodoka stood just in time for the enraged woman to grab the front of Nodoka's kamona with her left hand and slam her into a wall. "Listen to me you pathetic excuse for a mother and listen to me well. I have spent the last 120 years without any memory of who I was but today I found not only who I was but that the only decedent of mine who is truly worthy of my bloodline has a heartless bitch for a mother who will have him seppuku if he doesn't measure up to some undefined concept of a 'man among men'."

The woman pulled a European sword from her hip putting the blade to Nodoka's throat. "You will consider that contract filled as he has far more manhood in him than the bravest men of this time," the woman smiled nastily noticing the fear in Nodoka's eyes, "Ranma wants your acceptance and love and all you can think about is some ill defined promise he was not even told about until a couple of days ago."

Ranko stood tears in her eyes, "Please let her go."

"Not until she agrees," the woman looked back behind her, "Why should you care? It's because of that stupid contract that you cannot even admit you are really Ranma's sister or that thanks to that moronic decedent of mine, Genma, you and he share the same body,"

The woman pulled back on the blade slightly, "I on the other hand am far more understanding. After all I don't blame my other decedent for being so weak; for when it finally came down to the making the right choice he was willing to put everything on the line. 'We must endure the unendurable.' I wish I had known who I was then, then I could have been so proud that he was my decedent though my dear son Jimmu," the woman said tears falling from her eyes.

Nabiki paled as a sudden and terrifying revelation occurred to her. "Omikami Amaterasu," she said in an hushed voice.

The woman laughed, "I should have known of this group, you my dear Tendo Nabiki would figure it out if I gave out enough information. If you are wondering, I am willing to forgive you for using my decedent to make money. Heaven knows your father is too much an emotional wreck to be much use. Other hiring himself out as a walking water fountain, that is," Amaterasu turned back to Nodoka, "Now I believe we were talking about the little matter of a seppuku contract," she said pushing the sword just enough that it drew a little blood.

"You can't be the supreme kami of Japan," Nodoka said her eyes on what of the sword blade she could see.

"Because I no longer Genma's walking example of a weak, weepy woman? Living in city alone and then traveling for 120 years with no memory makes you become self sufficient in a real hurry. You know the only visitor I has was a white dragon named Merlin? And the only reason he was in the area was because he was dying from some horrible sickness. He said he got it in the city of Hiroshima August 6, 1945," Amaterasu then snorted dropping the sword and letting Nodoka go, "On second thought I shouldn't threaten a woman who is so afraid of dying that she wets herself," she said pointing to a small yellowish pool that had formed under Nodoka.

"Why don't you clean yourself up, MORTAL. Meanwhile I will show my decedent just what I think of his training his son in the Neko-ken," Amaterasu said shoving the sword into the floorboards followed by removing the scabbard and draping it over the sword. Suddenly Mr. Panda found himself outside with something more frightening than the Master, more terrifying than his wife with a sword: a very angry Amaterasu.

"Come on, Genma, you are my decedent certainly you can handle a weak woman even if she is the supreme goddess of Japan," Amaterasu said as she leapt at Genma and proceeded to introduce him to new meaning of the word **pain**. Nodoka meanwhile had fallen to the floor crying in shame. Ranko knelt down and hugged Nodoka, "Don't cry mom its all right," she kept saying.

Amaterasu reentered the house shaking her head. "Even the best of families have the occasional bad apple but Genma is not a relation I would wish on even my worst enemy."

Ranko looked up at Amaterasu angrily as she held her weeping mother, "There is no way you can be Amaterasu. She is kind and gentle just like Kasumi not some cruel monster," she spat.

Amaterasu suddenly put both her hands to her head and screamed in a tone that put the most tormented soul in the lowest plane of Hell to shame. "Noooooooo. I am not a monster," she wailed falling to her knees. "You're wrong Susano. I am not a monster. I am not a freak," she said putting her head in her hands.

The house door slammed open and a handsome young man stepped through with a green haired lady just behind him. His face took on the aspect of intense rage at seeing Amaterasu crying. "Am-chan. It is I, your nephew Okuninushi. What is wrong?" he asked running to the crying woman and kneeling down.

Amaterasu pulled her face from her hand revealing three tear streaked eyes. "Dear nephew Okuninushi, I'm not a monster am I?" she asked.

"No you are not a monster. Now which of you baka reminded her of what she was?" said Okuninushi his voice full of anger as he looked at the mortals before him.

"Before you go flying off the handle like Tendo Akane, Okuninushi perhaps you might ask why someone called your aunt a monster in the first place," said the green haired woman from the open door.

"Guardian Pluto!" Okuninushi exclaimed standing, "You knew that my aunt would be here and possibly in some emotional turmoil. What else do you know?"

"Part of this is my fault," said Guardian Pluto, "I wasn't happy with the way Ranma was being treated so I thought having his ancestor Omikami Amaterasu involved would help. When I found her she had no memory of who she had been; so I told her a little about herself and what Ranma was going through. I knew there would be conflict but I never dreamed it would get this out of hand."

Amaterasu slowly stood up looking at the sword shoved in the floor. Okuninushi followed her gaze and dropped his jaw in amazement. "That is Excalibur and its scabbard! What is the most powerful sword of the greatest Western king doing _here_?"

Amaterasu walked up to the sword, "There is something familiar about this sword" she said as she grabbed the hilt and pulled the sword out of the floor. Looking at the blade her three eyes widened as she saw her own reflection, "I... I remember!"

She turned toward Ranko and Nodoka, "I'm sorry but for some reason I lost all memory of who I was 120 years while at the same time my fellow kami disappeared. It wasn't until Guardian Pluto told me about you and Yamato Hirohito that I even knew I had any family," she said as she picked up the scabbard and resheathed Excalibur. "I guess the fear of losing you over a stupid and ill-defined promise made me behave totally irrationally. I know it's not much but I offer my body to use as you see fit for hurting your mother like this," Amaterasu said as she knelt before Ranko holding Excalibur above her head just like a Samurai would do with his katana before his daimyo.

Ranko looked at the sword offered to her and at the knelling goddess. 'For some reason she thinks that 'Ranko' and me are two separate people sharing one body. I certainly don't want her trying to hurt mom again so I might as well go along with it.' Reaching out with both hands she lifted the sword. Even in its scabbard she could fell the perfect balance of the weapon. "Do you know any martial arts?" she asked as she unsheathing the sword and looked at the blade, its flawless mirror surface and beyond razor sharp edges spoke of its craftsmanship.

"Yes I am an eight Dan in Kenjutsu and equally skilled in using a bow," said Amaterasu.

Resheathing Excalibur Ranko looked at Amaterasu and asked, "What unarmed martial arts do you know?"

"Only some basic moves," Amaterasu replied.

Ranko nodded, "All right, here is the way it is. You teach me Kenjutsu and I teach you unarmed martial arts. I wanted my mother's acceptance and you hurt her emotionally so don't expect me to go soft on you just because you are a goddess or because you and I are related."

"Thank you Ranko-sensei. Ranma-sensei," Amaterasu said bowing all the way to the floor causing her nephew to wince.

"I am going to love the look on the Ke Lun's face when she finds out about this," laughed Guardian Pluto.

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If Guardian Pluto was enjoying herself the same could not be said for Sailor Pluto. Something or someone had practically taken a sledgehammer to the timestream. She appeared as a young man finished telling the Sailor Senshi something.

"...and the next thing I knew that maniac Kaiyanwang Paradox had sent me here, to this timeline."

"Kaiyanwang Paradox?" asked Sailor Pluto as Sailors Uranus and Neptune showed up.

Yakumo turned and Pluto widened her eyes in recognition of the mark on the boy's forehead, "Wu. You're Wu!"

Yakumo groaned, "Great I get Sailor Pluto who I need but I also get the trigger happy Sailors Uranus and Neptune. Look I may be unkillable and indestructible but I would prefer it if you two would not try to blast me all over the countryside."

Sailor Pluto held out her hand in front of the two other Outers. "You said something about being sent here by Kaiyanwang Paradox. Who is that? A new enemy?"

"To you three at least yes. In her world her history you three were responsible for killing some of her best friends as well as her family and the grief has pushed her totally off the deep end," Yakumo said hoping Pluto would not push the issue of exactly who Kaiyanwang Paradox was. "As a result we now have an evil time traveling maniac who sees the past as little more than a piggy bank to raid for the needs of her demonic subjects."

Before anyone could respond what appeared to be Sailor Pluto appeared, "Blast it I messed up _again_. You would have thought that my predecessor would have left _some_ instructions on how to operate her magical devices," She looked at Sailor Pluto and started rubbing her head, "Great, I really did not need this."

Sailor Pluto narrowed her eyes, "Who are you?"

"_Shadow_ Pluto, Keeper of the Time Gates. Well at least what I understand of the blasted things," the woman said grumbling, "Now let's see now just how far off my timeline am I _this_ time," Shadow Pluto said summoning up a floating map of time.

"What are you doing?" asked Uranus angrily.

"I am no threat to your precious Crystal Tokyo, I simply want to get home to _my_ Crystal Tokyo. By the way everyone calls me Shades," Shades said looking over the time map. "Great, there are other time travelers here," Shades grumbled as she turned and looked at Yakumo. "At least one of them is nearby. So what _exactly_ are you doing here?"

"Same as you. Trying to get home," Yakumo said, "You said time travelers as in more than one. You wouldn't happen to know where they are?"

"Of course I know where they are but there is no way I am going to tell you with those three trigger happy baka listening in," Shades said gesturing with her thumb to the Outers.

"Which is exactly why I thought it was best to check up on you," said a familiar voice. The eight Senshi looked up and saw Sailor Moon in a different colored outfit. The dull red trim combined with her black outfit matched the grim features on her face. "It was their callous attitude that the end justifies the means and blast first maybe ask questions later that created Kaiyanwang Paradox in the first place."

"Who are you?" asked Sailor Jupiter.

"Jupiter, my dear friend, I am simply another future for Sailor Moon. I call myself Queen Eclipse," Queen Eclipse smiled.

"Why does your Sailor Pluto call herself Shadow Pluto?" asked an angry Uranus.

Queen Eclipse smiled, "Because while she has Sailor Pluto's powers and memories she is not Sailor Pluto but rather a ShadowBeing given the form of Sailor Pluto."

"Though my knowledge is far better than yours, Pluto. My Queen's arrival only confirms my fears; Kaiyanwang Paradox has her finger in _this_ timeline," grumbled Shades.

"As much as I wish it was for other reasons you are correct old friend," said Queen Eclipse.

"Any idea on what her goals are here or is that hoping for too much?"

"The visitors she brought here are to prevent the battle between Pharaoh Wiseman and Neo-Queen Serenity."

Shades closed her eyes, "Yes, I see it now." Shades then slowly opened her eyes, "The future is far better than the one that would have been here, but there is a price."

"Crystal Tokyo," sighed Queen Eclipse, "That is one of the few things that is predictable about Paradox. In the timelines she takes an active hand in she either portrays Crystal Tokyo in the worst possible light or crates a better future to sow internal conflict among the Sailor Senshi. Either way she ensures Crystal Tokyo either will not happen or will go down in flames some 900 years after its founding."

"We beat her," said Shades angrily.

"In forming a better Crystal Tokyo yes. But in actually outwitting her…"

"That still doesn't explain you associating with a demon!" fumed Uranus.

Queen Eclipse turned to face the Outer her face a mask of intense anger, "Now listen to me you self righteous baka. Not all demons are evil, some in fact want to find a way to live with humans but because of the way they are they thought they could not change," Queen Eclipse pulled out her compact, "I have a Wiseman in my world too or rather a Wise_woman_; unlike your future we are not at each other throats. I wield the Ginzuishou, she the Jakokusuishou, and an old friend the Ningen no Zou. No one of us has total power and there is always a third party to between the other two from trying to pound in each other brains."

"But they're demons," stammered Neptune.

"So? I sooner trust the judgment of many of them than you three. Under your 'wise' guidance I either turned into that naive total airhead Neo-Queen Serenity or that sadomasochistic maniac Kaiyanwang Paradox!" Queen Eclipse yelled in Pluto's face her own face purple with rage.

"SAY WHAT?!" yelled the four Inners with Sailor Moon simply staring at Queen Eclipse her mouth opening and closing but no sound coming out.

"I cannot believe how naive we all were back when this was the present," said an artificial female voice. Turning everyone saw a women dressed in a tattered purple robe.

"Kaiyanwang Paradox," said Queen Eclipse shaking her head.

"You know I never dreamed that my efforts to wipe out Crystal Tokyo in all futures would produce such a challenging version of me nor in a Crystal Tokyo that in so many respects resembled a mixture of the original and my own kingdom," Paradox commented.

"We don't go raiding the past to kidnap people for our demons," Queen Eclipse said glaring at the figure.

Paradox seemed to glare at Queen Eclipse, "No you don't. You have found ways to alter the demons that come to you as little as possible," Paradox then straightened up. "I will not go back to using the methods of Neo-Queen Serenity. Those methods prevented me from seeing how Pluto was using me and killed not only my only daughter but the rest of my family as well," the figure spat.

Queen Eclipse looked at the figure, "You found out right after Pluto went too far, didn't you?"

Paradox backed up clearly shaken, "You know?"

Queen Eclipse sighed, "Quite obvious really. The Ginzuishou for all its power cannot bring back the dead. It can create a psudobody and place the soul within in. But the result has more in common with the demons we fought then the humans we protect," Queen Eclipse glared at Kaiyanwang Paradox, "My Sailor Senshi have embraced their true nature but they have accepted it rather than let it turn them bitter."

It seemed as if Paradox was staring hard at Queen Eclipse though her face was totally hidden by the hood of her robe, "I detect a harshness in your voice. You have no more love for Sailor Pluto than I do. And yet somehow there still enough of Neo-Queen Serenity in you that you will not let her suffer. Enough to challenge me and my goals."

"I may not have your power or your experience, Paradox, but I was there when it all ended. I saw the place and time you died, Paradox. In the end your insane plan to merge several key timelines using time vortexes and wipe out Crystal Tokyo in all futures will fail."

Paradox seemed to straighten, "It will NOT fail!" she yelled.

Queen Eclipse looked sadly at Paradox, "You don't get it. For me it is _history_ and despite your efforts history can not be changed."

"I will prove you wrong," snapped Paradox.

Shades muttered something under her breath, "My Queen. There seems to be a distortion field around the travelers. Until it fades any attempt at getting them home would just make things worse by bringing more people from their world here."

Queen Eclipse rubbed her temples, "How long?"

"A week perhaps two," Paradox said giggling, "What are you worried about? I mean just what kind of damage can a neophyte Wu, his nearly as neophyte Sanjiyan Unkara, and a half Human half Sanjiyan Unkara who turns into a demon with warm water do?"

"My Sanjiyan Unkara? You mean Sham Pu is here too?"

"If by here you mean this timeline or city yes. But if you mean here in this district then no," Paradox said giggling again.

"Where is she?" asked an increasing annoyed Yakumo.

"Why my dear Yakumo, even as ill trained as you are, you are still Sham Pu's Wu. Wouldn't it stand to reason that the first thing she would do would to seek out this timeline's version of you and see how you were doing as Parvati's Wu?" Paradox said the tinge of humor coming through even her artificial voice.

"Oh boy. Her first reaction will be to have my counterpart become Sanjiyan Unkara so that Pai can be Wu," Yakumo said slapping his head.

"This is more fun than watching my lust demons have their way with Neo-Queen Serenity," said Paradox said giggling like school girl.

"Have their way?" said the faint hushed voice of Sailor Moon.

Paradox looked at the girl, "Gads I can't believe I was this idealistic or naive. One of you need to explain..."

"I don't need to have _that_ explained to me. You're talking about rape!" yelled Sailor Moon.

"If you are talking about the rest of the Sailor Senshi then yes but," continued Paradox as she removed her robe revealing a dress similar to Neo-Queen Serenity's except in place of her clothes' bright and vibrant colors were dark and muted tones, "If I gave my consent for my counterpart to have a tumble in the hay with my lust demons then it could hardly be called rape in that case," she said smiling as she finished removed one of gloves revealing rope burns on her wrist. "It not as if I don't put her through something I don't do myself. To be tied down helpless while a chosen few of your subjects are given a chance to have some fun," Paradox hugged her self, "Makes me warm just thinking about it."

Queen Eclipse shook her head, "You are worst than evil. You're just plain sick."

Paradox smiled as she faded out, "Don't knock it until you try it."

Queen Eclipse continued messaging her temples as Sailor Moon went into her default emotional defense mode ie wailing her head off. "Could somebody please calm _that_ down so we can actually sit down and plan on how to deal with this mess."

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Guardian Pluto's momentary joy was replaced by concern. Her efforts at manipulating events had resulted in both Nodoka and Amaterasu nearly becoming total emotional basket cases. Given her initial reaction to Amaterasu's threat Nodoka could go and do something really drastic and it was time to defuse that possibility. "Nodoko-san," Guardian Pluto said kneeling before the woman who looked at her with tear streaked eyes Ranko still by her side. "They say with age comes wisdom. Well despite living for 13,000 years what I did today was not very wise. Your son and daughter both love you very much and only due to some misinformation from Genma were they hiding from you. I want you to promise on your honor that for their sakes you will not try and eliminate the dishonor you currently feel by committing seppuku."

Nodoka looked at Guardian Pluto, then at Ranko, and finally at the kneeling Amaterasu, "Amaterasu said she was my daughter and she and my son share the same body," Guardian Pluto quietly nodded going on to the next stage of her plan, "Two minds, one body," she said holding Nodoka's hands "Trust me on this. Several misguided attempts at a 'cure' have put the other mind asleep. The fact of the matter is there is no cure for Jusenkyo. You promise?"

Nodoka nodded her head, "I promise," she said her voice a little stronger.

Ranko looked at Guardian Pluto critically, "What do you mean there is no cure?"

Guardian Pluto stood up, went into the kitchen and returned with a glass of water. "My mother was of the same race as Amaterasu, the Sanjiyan Unkara. If there was a cure do you think I would continue to allow myself to turn into **this**?" she said pouring the glass on her own head. Everyone gasped as the woman turned into a demon right in front of them. Amaterasu and Nodoka both slowly stood up their eyes wide.

Guardian Pluto smiled, "I had more than enough time to accept this. Not as bad as the man who fell into Spring of Drowned Panda and then tried to use the Spring of Drowned Man. He turned into literal Panda-man as the springs mix rather than replace one another," she said as she folded her wings over herself like a cloak. "Though there are problems with the occasional over zealous Demon Hunter."

"What about the packets of Instant Jusenkyo water?" asked Nabiki.

"Crude imitations as demonstrated by how they work or rather _not_ work," Guardian Pluto said, "You know there is a spring of drowned Female Sanjiyan Unkara. Using it on Ranko when the body is in Ranma's form should fix all the mental damage that moron Genma has done. Neko-ken included. Besides," Guardian Pluto said as she went out and came back with a book, "it will give Ranma and Ranko the ability to use this training manual Genma stole."

Ranko accepted the manual, "Sazan Ryu?" she said reading the title.

"The martial arts style of the Sanjiyan Unkara," Guardian Pluto smiled.

"What is the Neko-ken?" asked Nodoka.

Ranko explained the process of the Neko-ken. Both Amaterasu and Nodoka faces became dark as storm clouds. Okuninushi on the other hand developed a look of stunned amazement on his face. When Ranko was done Amaterasu and Nodoka looked at each other. "Think he has recovered from your last lesson?" Nodoka asked. "Let's go find out," Amaterasu said as both women walked out into the back yard. A few moments later there were the sounds of a Panda crying out in pain.

"Yep he recovered," quipped Guardian Pluto as Okuninushi simply stood there with an amazed look on his face. "I cannot believe there is anyone that stupid," he finally said.

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Sham Pu was having far more somber thoughts as she sat in the hospital looking at Natsuko. "It won't be until tomorrow that the water will arrive," Sham Pu said pulling out a ward, "more than enough time to teach you both the basics in Sanjiyan Unkara Ward magic."

"That looks like a normal shinto ward," said Hideyoshi pushing his glasses back up.

"And until they opened their third eye many Sanjiyan Unkara would look like normal humans," Sham Pu said tossing the ward down on the ground where it turned into a little bug, "Appearances are deceiving. This is a Tei-Chin-Chii-Chii-Chong. It has restorative powers," Sham Pu said as the bug crawled up on the bed and attached to Natsuko. "It will help speed her recovery."

Several hours later Sham Pu nodded in approval as Yakumo and Pai both finished making a Tei-Chin-Chii-Chii-Chong ward. "Good, you have a good handle on the basics. Now let us all get some sleep. The water should be here tomorrow and it is going to be a long day.

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Sham Pu was back at the village and had just been defeated by a cloaked figure who had Pai beside her. As the cloaked figure and Pai ate the first price Sham Pu walked up and gave the Kiss of Death. At which point everything hit the fan only this time the figure proceeded to lay waste to the village. Sham Pu ran up to grapple with the enraged figure and finally pulled off its hood and stared not into the face of Ranko but rather her own. At which point Sham Pu woke up sitting bolt upright sweat pouring down her face. That had been a very unpleasant variant to what had become a familiar nightmare.

"Stop!" proclaimed Parvati.

"I am sorry. I didn't mean anything," Yakumo stammered.

Sham Pu smiled, "What he do?"

"This lecherous swine kissed me while Pai was asleep!" bellowed Parvati.

Sham Pu decided to have some fun, "Oh is _that_ all. I thought from the way you yelled he was trying to feel you up or something worse."

Parvati's left human eye started to twitch again. "Here I thought it was only the young mortals who were worst than some monsters. Now I find that the first fellow Sanjiyan Unkara I have seen in nearly 300 years is a pervert."

Sham Pu giggled, "I'm no pervert just practical," looking at a tapping sound at the window, "Ah here is our water," she said as she careful took the two water casks from the bird demon's claws on the ground. Checking the labels Sham Pu smile and got a cup from the kitchen. "Welcome to the race of the Sanjiyan Unkara" Sham Pu said gleefully as she tossed the water in Yakumo's face.

Parvati's three eyes widened in shock, "You weren't crazy. There really is such a place," she said as she approached her Wu and poked her finger into one of the additions in her Wu's anatomy. Yakumo looked down and saw Parvati pushing her finger into his breast. 'Wait a minute men don't generally have B cup size breasts.' In near panic Yakumo pulled out his pants so he could see if the lower part of his body matched what was implied topside. Yakumo's three eyes opened wide and a strangled gurgling sound came from his or rather her throat.

'Oh this is going to be fun.' Sham Pu thought, "Think of it this way, thanks to your night job you have a wardrobe that will go with your new cold water body," she said. Yakumo's head snapped up at the words 'cold water' and ran to the kitchen and turned on the hot water tap. A few minutes later a very annoyed male Yakumo walked back in.

"Now for the second part," Sham Pu said throwing water from the second cask into Parvati's face. A very confused Pai blinked her two eyes. "Now all you have to do is look at Pai in your cold water form with your third eye and pull at the image you see and she will become your Wu," Sham Pu frowned "However since used a certain way the Ningen No Zou could destroy the world so it is not the sort of thing you want the followers of Kaiyanwang Siva to be able to play around with. So you are still going to have to find that thing."

"Considering you changed me briefly into a girl you could at least help," said Yakumo.

Sham Pu walked into the kitchen, poured a glass of cold water and came back out with it in her hand she said, "The magic is such that any cold water will trigger the transformation," throwing the contents in Yakumo's face. The now very female Yakumo scowled at Sham Pu with her three eyes. "Don't just stand there. Make Pai your Wu."

Yakumo looked at Pai who had tears in her eyes, "What happen to Yakumo?" Yakumo saw something in Pai and tried to concentrate on it to determine what it was. Next thing he knew Pai had the mark of Wu on her forehead. "What Yakumo do to Pai?" asked Pai in a worried tone.

"Yakumo royally screw up. That what Yakumo do to Pai," Yakumo said glumly "Pai let's go to school. We still have to find the Ningen No Zou and I need to file a leave of absence."

"Yakumo right maybe Ningen No Zou will make Yakumo human?"

"It can't. The Ningen No Zou's humanization process only works with non-Jusenkyo Sanjiyan Unkara. But it has other powers. Such as the one that allowed me to travel to this timeline."

"Timeline? What Sham Pu mean?" asked Pai.

"Very simple Pai, you traveled the world to get here, I on the other hand however unwillingly traveled time," said Sham Pu.

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Yakumo's early morning adventure was less nerve wracking than Ranma's. Ranma went to sleep in his warm water form and when he woke up he found a very nude goddess in his futon with him. He jumped out of the futon less Akane find him like that and grab the nearest blunt object to play a game of smash the pervert named Ranma with. Then while he was trying to sort through his thoughts Guardian Pluto showed up with a bucket and next thing he knew he was female. Ranma walked to the bathroom but noticed that this time his body felt stronger, more agile than ever before. Shrugging off the feeling Ranma splashed himself with warm water.

"Ranma," said the soft voice of Amaterasu, "When I said this body was yours to do with as you please I meant it."

Ranma turned around and was relieved at seeing that the goddess was now clothed. "Well it's just that Akane..."

"Akane would what?" asked Amaterasu a slight edge in her voice.

"Jump to the wrong conclusion and hit Ranma," said Kasumi from behind the goddess in her typical happy voice.

"I see," stated Amaterasu her face a mask. The goddess then smiled, "Don't worry I will have a talk with her during breakfast."

During breakfast Ranma and his mother both kept a nervous eye on the goddess. "Akane, what is this I hear about you jumping to the wrong conclusions about Ranma and hitting him for it?" Amaterasu asked in a pleasant voice.

Nabiki paled remembering Amaterasu's violent reaction with both of Ranma's parents. 'Sis, don't say something stupid. She could kill you.' she thought.

"He's a pervert," Akane said.

"Oh and exactly how is he a pervert?" Amaterasu asked still in a pleasant tone of voice.

"He turns into a girl and he saw me naked in the bathroom," Akane stated, "Never mind he plays around with all those other girls."

Amaterasu frowned, "Ranma turns into a girl because this idiotic decedent of mine didn't have enough brains to learn Chinese. Similarly the other girls are mainly the result of him listening to his stomach rather than his bloodline," she said glaring at Genma who was wondering if he should go on a training trip with the Master. As brutal as it was his training was likely safer for his health than being around this goddess. "As far as him seeing you naked from what Guardian Pluto told me you walked in on him."

Akane humped and said, "He is still a pervert."

By this time Guardian Pluto was having serious thoughts about Ranma and Akane getting along with each other in this reality. "Blast it you two got along so well in my timeline so what is your major problem in this one?" she asked angrily.

"_Your_ timeline?! All right Guardian Pluto, just what have you been keeping from all of us?" asked Amaterasu in an angry tone.

Shrinking from the gaze of the angry goddess Guardian Pluto started telling them about her world. By the time she was done everyone was staring dumb founded. "Let me get this straight," said Nabiki, "You were sent here by some time traveling nutcase and in your world we are either the same kind of being Amaterasu is or their immortal indestructible guardians known as Wu."

"That accurately sums it up," Guardian Pluto said sheepishly.

"Wait a minute that bucket of water you threw at me when I got out of bed. What was that Pluto?" asked an angry Ranma.

"Spring of Drowned Female Sanjiyan Unkara," she said softly.

Ranma jumped up and grabbed Pluto by the front of her outfit. "Mind telling me why?"

"It's very simple Ranma. Your father taught you next to zilch in social skills. I didn't realize until now just how much you depended on Ranko, the personality that formed out of all the 'weak female' parts of your mind," Guardian Pluto said grabbing Ranma's hand and pulling him to her. "Without her you are a total jerk with less social development than a monkey. Ranko's influence changed everyone here for the better in my world so why not make that happen in this world?"

"Because without my influence my brother's counterpart was and still is likely to use your face for a punching bag," said Ranko's voice.

Ranma stiffened and slowly turned in the direction of the voice. His eyes bugged out a little for standing in the frame of the front door was his female side with three eyes. "I know you've all heard a variant of this before but I just cannot resist. I'm Saotome Ranko. Sorry about this," she said laughing.

---------------------------------------

Sailor Pluto was not happy. Once Sailor Moon had calmed down she had agreed with Queen Eclipse that the Outers were basically loose cannons and both of them read the Outers the riot act. Queen Eclipse felt it was best to get the travelers together so as to try and minimize the alterations happening. From what Yakumo said it was unclear if Sham Pu was in Shinjuku or Hong Kong so Sailor Pluto went to where she felt the third traveler might be. As she approached the Tendo Dojo she heard a female voice say "I'm Saotome Ranko. Sorry about this."

Sailor Pluto sighed. It looked like she had found her third traveler. Well given all the people it could have been she should feel thankful. "Saotome Ranko," The girl turned and frowning took up a defensive stance. Sailor Pluto could feel the power building up in the girl. Right now she probably surpassed about all the Senshi except for Saturn and Moon.

"Ranko? What's wrong. Who is out oh shoot," Sailor Pluto stopped as an icy grip of fear grabbed her. That was _her_ voice, "Let me go, Ranma, that idiotic counterpart of mine is very much into acceptable losses. She wouldn't hesitate Death Screaming this whole house to the ground if she felt it endangered her precious Crystal Tokyo," Sailor Pluto paled as another version of her gently moved Ranko out of the way.

"Now are the two of us going to talk about this like intelligent people or are you going to go off the deep end to the point where I am going to wind up breaking your neck as well?" the other Pluto said folding her arms across her chest.

"Guardian Pluto you sure that is the right stance to take with her?" asked a nervous Ranko as the others in the house came to the door.

"It was my main weak point, Ranko. I rarely did direct confrontations in this time period and when I did they nearly always were of the blast first worry about it later kind," Guardian Pluto said as she pulled out a mirror. "Though if it does go down to that I want to make sure I am the one who walks away from this," she said gazing into the mirror. Sailor Pluto gasped as a blob of light exited from Guardian Pluto's head and turned into a pure heart crystal. "Here Ranko keep an eye on this. I do not want to remain Wu any longer than I have to," she said looking at Sailor Pluto.

Sailor Pluto gulped as she saw the mark of Wu on Guardian Pluto's forehead. "Yakumo said that Kaiyanwang Paradox stated that she sent three people. So why are there four of you?" she asked.

"Setsuna quickly found out where they had been sent and we decided to bring them back before things go too messy," her counterpart said.

Sailor Pluto frowned, "Well it is a little _late_ for that. Your three friends have royally messed up this timeline. Crystal Tokyo is fading fast and I have no idea on how to save it. Worst yet thanks to the energy field around there people they cannot even try to go home for at least a week perhaps two."

Guardian Pluto shook her head. "The reason you are having problems is likely because you are trying to save one Crystal Tokyo rather than the idea."

"Well we have another problem. Setsuna said there the two timelines are not in sync with each other. The best ratio she could set up was one hour there equals over 2 days here. So basically my instructions are get everybody together, have Guardian Pluto send a written message on the situation back, and then figure out what to do from there."

Sailor Pluto jumped as her communicator beeped, "Mercury, please tell me you have good news about knowing where Sham Pu is."

Mercury sweat dropped, "Well we found she, as well as this timeline's Yakumo and Pai have gone Ningen No Zou hunting... in Hong Kong. Queen Eclipse is having Shades looking for them so hopefully we can get that situation under control."

"Queen Eclipse? Shades? Great we got a glimpse of at least one of them in that other timeline Paradox created," said an exasperated Ranko.

"_Other_ timeline?!" asked a worried Sailor Pluto, "Just how _many_ timelines have you encountered?"

"We kind of lost count a while ago. Your counterpart was not happy about finding out that the Millennium Queen was another one of Paradox's tinkering with Sailor Moon's life and…"

"Sailor Moon was the Millennium Queen?!" asked Pluto paling, "But she was the one who helped Beryl end the Moon Kingdom."

"Yeh, the little crazy has been busy," scowled Ranko.

"The ironic thing is my past was all triggered by Pluto killing the wrong person at the worst possible time," said an all too familiar artificial female voice.

"You are going to tell us or do we play 20 questions?"

"It was you or rather your brother Ranma she killed," said the purple robbed figure, "Since he wasn't there my family's pure heart crystals were destroyed thanks to Neptune and Uranus."

"Why would she kill my brother?" yelled Ranko.

"Perhaps she saw the future where he was Wiseman, Akane was Guardian of the Time Gates, and the Sailor Senshi were all dead and jumped to the wrong conclusion. Of all the people who could become Wiseman Ranma was the only one who out lasted Neo-Queen Serenity. Perhaps she saw you help make the Millennium Queen and didn't bother to learn the battle between her and Queen Serenity was a mistake created out of Queen Serenity's own biases. Just as there are many people who can become Wiseman there are many ways each can become Wiseman."

"If that is true then there are many paths to you as well," growled Ranko.

"I have looked but have found only one. Perhaps it was just the right combination at the worst possible time that made me. You think I am a monster but I am nasty only with those who deserve it. In the case of the virgins that I liberated from that Ryo-ko I told them what fate I had spared them from. Since Sham Pu was so successful in her initial search for the Ningen No Zou there was no reason for her to return. By the Laws of the Joketsuzoku their lives are mine to do with as I please. But I still gave them a choice of returning to what lives they had where in the past or live in my own time with their every need and want taken care of at the cost of their virginity," the robed figure straightened up, "Even I was surprised at how many took me up on my offer. Some have even become like Hotaru full time partners to some of the more perverted lust demons. Of course perverted by lust demon standards is wanting to actually _talk_ to a woman than have sex with her," finished the figure shrugging its shoulders. "You know that when Sham Pu gets the Ningen No Zou she is coming here as she figures that she can provide enough training to boost your power levels up to reasonable levels."

"That is assuming Guardian Pluto doesn't convince everyone here to become Sanjiyan Unkara," Ranko said shaking her head.

"You say that like its a _bad_ thing," said Guardian Pluto in an annoyed voice.

Ranko rubbed her head, "This isn't our history and part of what makes our world work is the way we interact. There have been nearly seven months worth of interactions here that we know little about."

"She's right without the insight of becoming Sanjiyan Unkara this timeline's Akane is still likely an egotistical brat that gets mad when things don't go her way," said another female voice which caused Nabiki to again pale and Kasumi to get the weirdest expression on her face.

"I'll show you," yelled Akane as she stormed out of the house holding a mallet. "who is an. Egotistical. Brat?" she finished weakly staring at the speaker. "I guess didn't you recognize your own voice, right sis?" said Nabiki as she nervously walked through the door and looked at the other Akane.

"I wouldn't be too cocky either, Nabiki. You accession to kami status changed your prospective in our world. In this world I suspect you are still the little twisted witch who gets her kicks at getting money and using blackmail to control people's lives," said the other Akane as she opened her third eye and crossed her arms over her chest.

Nabiki left eye starting twitching while her sister Akane started babbling about twins and three eyes. Ranma stepped out of the house, "Two Akanes? And one of them has three eyes? Could somebody tell me what is going on?"

"Simple," said Ranko smirking, "She, like me, is from another timeline--a world where history followed a far different sequence of events."

"She fight or cook any better than this tomboy?" Ranma said pointing back to his world's Akane who glared at him pulling back her mallet. "RANMA NO BAKA!" she yelled swinging the thing at his head.

"Cha-Lieh-Chong," said Akane Sanjiyan blasting the head of the mallet to dust. "Still living in your little fantasy world of being the best martial artist here and being able to make meals fit for mortal human consumption I see," she calmly stated as her counterpart missed Ranma and ungracefully fell on her face.

Akane pulled herself off the ground staring daggers as her counterpart. Ranma by contrast was smiling. "That was great. Can you teach me that?" he said stepping forward.

Akane Sanjiyan frowned, "Your cold water form is a half Sanjiyan Unkara? How?" Looking over at Guardian Pluto who winced, "Never mind I think I know how. Definitely, as your new status is eventually going to make you a magnet for every 'I want to be immortal' loony in the area."

Akane Sanjiyan took up a fighting stance, "Given that this time is nearly seven months from the time we met in both worlds it will be interesting as to what techniques you have picked up and created," Akane Sanjiyan smiled, "my human form is nowhere near your skill level but this Sanjiyan Unkara form is another matter."

Ranma quickly realized that this Akane was not going to come charging in like the one he knew all too well. Ranma went in with a foot sweep which Akane Sanjiyan jumped over easily. "Don't feel too bad even as half Sanjiyan Unkara you will find your Ki and Chakra abilities much better in your female form," Ranma narrowed his eyes at that comment and threw a couple rabbit punches which Akane Sanjiyan blocked easily. Ranma back up and frowned, "Something just doesn't add up here. Your speed is greater than the tomboy's but your stance suggests that your skill is only marginally better."

Akane Sanjiyan nodded, "The Sanjiyan Unkara have far larger reserves of Ki and Chakra which they normally use to power their spells. As a result they can easily master Ki and Chakra techniques normally requiring the skill of a third Dan or better. The main problem is that it doesn't not impart one with actual skill. That is why I train in human form--it helps build up my reserves that much faster and allow me to actually acquire the needed skills to control those reserves properly. In fact my world's Ranma created a school called the Sanjiyan Unkara Ganso Musabetsu Kakuto Ryu that exploits these huge reserves of Ki and Chi. Against this new school _no_ mortal martial artist has a chance. For example, our Sham Pu tossed Ke Lun around like she was a white belt using that Ryu and she is not even 1st Dan in it yet."

"Sweeto," said a familiar voice as a small form groped Akane Sanjiyan. Quickly she pulled Happosai from her breast. "Hello, Akane dear. Uh when did you get three eyes?" he asked nervously as she stared at him dangling from her hand.

"It doesn't matter as you are not going to be awake long enough to hear it. Rei-Syou female Ki revision!"

"Bububub," babbled Happosai shaking as sparks of Ki danced around him like St. Elmo's Fire. Akane Sanjiyan then dropped Happosai where he just laid there with the widest smile on his face Ranma had ever seen.

"That should keep the pervert out of commission for at least two days. I hope," Akane Sanjiyan said.

"What did you do to him?" asked a stunned Ranma.

"Merely dumped about 100th of my female Ki reserves into the little pervert via the lightning serpent. I figured if I gave him what he wanted faster than he could take it he'd pass out and I was right."

"That was part of the Sanjiyan Unkara Ganso Musabetsu Kakuto Ryu?!" asked an awed Ranma.

"Yes but it is still a work in progress. We haven't worked out what can be trained when or even what can be safely learned by mortals. For that reason the school is restricted only very powerful and skilled mortal and supernatural beings."

"Sure the last thing you want somebody to do is use an Oppenheimer Retributive Strike and turn a major city into Jusenkyo Central," quipped Guardian Pluto. "Good thing is somebody seems to have used the Manganmaru in this timeline so what happened in our world cannot happen here. At least with that item."

"Seems our robed migraine has taken a powder," Ranko commented. "But there seems to be unusually large amount of magic where she was standing. What the? It's moving? That sneaky little... She didn't leave at all; she was invisible."

"Only confirms that feelings that she may be putting on an act as to how powerful she really is," Guardian Pluto said narrowing her eyes. "Blast it can't sense anything in this form. Should have stayed in my demon form."

"We she is gone for real this time. Say we go with our counterparts?" said Ranko.

"Sure. Its going to be fun to see what Hina-chan-sensei does."

"Who?" asked Ranma.

"Hinako Hinomiya. Your tannin and english teacher," said Ranko puzzled. "You know looks like a child until she drains somebody's Ki and then turns into a woman."

"Ranko, I don't think he has meet her yet," said Sanjiyan Akane.

"I guess our old tannin and english teacher hasn't left the district yet," Ranko shrugged. "Want to go in warm water forms and play with what there is of Kuno's mind?"

Sanjiyan Akane shrugged, "Sure if there is still a dating horde in this timeline I can try out my shred their clothes until they are no longer decent attack."

----------------------

Everything had gone well in Hong Kong until Benares showed up through Takuhi's body promising that everyone in the house would die a painful bloody death. Sham Pu countered that she would foil Benares by making everyone else in the house Sanjiyan Unkara so he'd get Pai but have more Sanjiyan Unkara to fight him. As proof of this she called in Lee Ling-Ling and with one splash made her Sanjiyan Unkara. Benares was viable shaken and withdrew his threat. Sham Pu by contrast decided to take preventive measures. Which is why when Shades caught up to Sham Pu she found not just one Sanjiyan Unkara and one Wu but several Sanjiyan Unkara and a couple of Wu most of whom where trying to cope with their new transformations. This was followed by Shades finding a good solid wall and repeatedly hitting her head against it.

"She did WHAT?!" screamed Sailor Pluto in a voice a few octaves above her normal range.

"Used that Sanjiyan Unkara pool water on Yakumo and three people in Hong Kong. Then one of them made her brother Wu," said Mercury nervously.

"Have Shades get that baka back here before she turns all of Hong Kong into either Sanjiyan Unkara or Wu," yelled Sailor Pluto her face purple with rage.

"She is all ready on her way with her little group but she is going to Nerima not here," Mercury said, "Pluto why are you so angry it just four people affected."

"No it isn't because my baka counterpart Guardian Pluto convinced everyone here to become Sanjiyan Unkara and then took them to where she stored the water. We have find a way to get those maniacs out of here before they turn the whole planet into either Sanjiyan Unkara or Wu!" she said cutting off the link with her Mercury.

"What damage can they do in two weeks? Try what damage can they do in less than two _days_," fumed Sailor Pluto.

"That is what makes it so fun," said a familiar voice.

Sailor Pluto spun around, "You! You are the one who has turned my timeline into a total mess by sending those... those _people_ here," she fumed at Paradox who was in her variant Neo-Queen Serenity outfit.

"Just think they are going to be here for at least another five days perhaps as long as 12. Imagine the fun there will be," Paradox giggled and then got serious, "How does it _feel_ Sailor Pluto to have someone controlling your life without _any_ regards to your feelings or your desires? I thought you would like my gift of actually knowing what I went through with your counterpart of my timeline."

Sailor Pluto backed up stunned, "What's the matter Sailor Pluto? Don't like your own tactics when you are the one being manipulated?" Paradox said in a cruel voice.

Sailor Pluto in that moment realized that in other history her actions had created this vengeance happy version of the moon princess and fell to her knees crying. "You know I think I will leave you and the other Outers of this timeline alone. The emotional pain you will all soon feel will be more than anything my lust demons, Hotaru, or I could come up with," Paradox said as did something with a control on her wrist. She then stepped into the Time Gates that formed.

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Setsuna looked at the letter that had come through the Time Gates less than half an hour after she sent Ranma and Akane through. As she read it she shook her head, "Well I can't fault their logic but Guardian Pluto and Sham Pu have really mucked up things."

"What is going on?" asked Prince Demando.

"So far the main thing is the Pool of Drowned Sanjiyan Unkara getting a real work out in that other history. Ranma, all three Tendo daughters, Ling-Ling's counterpart, the woman Sham Pu got the statue from all have gotten the water. On top of it we have a future version of the Sailor Moon we saw Paradox create trying to keep a lid on things," Setsuna shook her head, "My counterpart must be having fits."

Setsuna then chuckled as she read a part of the letter aloud, "I knew that Ranko's influence on all of us had been for the better but it wasn't until being in this timeline that either of us realized just how much we owed Ranko and the Pool of Drowned Sanjiyan Unkara. My own counterpart is a total egotistical brat who as near as I can tell has not really improved despite that we are some six to seven months forward in time. Ranma's counterpart at first appeared to have picked up a lot of techniques but as we went through many of them definitely fell into what our Ranma called the 'totally underwhelming' category though the Kachu Tenshin Amaguriken and Hiryu Shoten Ha (both via this world's Ke Lun), and Sui-ken Ranma (Ranma really drunk? Now there is a scary thought) are definitely on the 'very useful' list."

Setsuna frowned slightly she continued reading, "Your counterpart Guardian Pluto's idea to bring in this timeline's Amaterasu to solve problems got way out of hand as she wound up _threatening_ this reality's Nodoka. Seems seeing herself in Excalibur brought back her memory but in such a way it fused with the Pendragon Oni part of her mind. She tried to make it up to Ranma by offering him and Ranko to use her body in anyway they liked (Happosai, if you are hearing this get your mind out of the gutter, please.)", Setsuna said giggling as the small martial artist tried to get the silly grin off his face while their own Amaterasu simply shook her head.

"As expected with a Ranma without Ranko's influence that could mean one thing: new sparing partner. It pretty much like when our Genma and Pendragon Amaterasu train together. This world's Kuno did not react well to Amaterasu's little statement and neither did Shampoo (I am sorry Ke Lun but it is clear that this version is well on the way being the one talked about in General Yamoto's timeline and so not deserving to be called by her proper Mandarin name.)" Setsuna said as she noticed Ke Lun hanging her head in shame.

"Elder Ke Lun, it's not your fault," said Sailor Moon comforting the old woman, "That is not you any more than Valkyrie Moon is me."

"Except that it could easily been me. As Setsuna explained before they left that timeline is for all practical a merger of the three individual ones she originally saw for Ranma, Pai, and you," Ke Lun looked thoughtfully at the Time Gates, "In a way Paradox has given me a great gift: a chance to truly see the consequences of our Laws and my efforts in enforcing them. As I have feared it is every bit as bad as I thought. When my great granddaughter gets back we are going to have a long talk about overhauling our Book of Laws."

Setsuna nodded her head as she continued reading from the letter, "Our Sham Pu showed up late in the evening by which time this reality's Pluto was having a nervous fit. When she started yelling at Sham Pu Guardian Pluto tapped a few pressure points and instant unconscious Pluto. Part of the reason she was coming so unglued was due to the energy field you found. Queen Eclipse and Shades (they are from the timeline we saw Paradox create) were not pleased with Sailor Pluto's actions and so tied her up and gagged her. (Less Sailor Acceptable Losses decides to Death Scream everyone in our sleep. If this is what Paradox had to deal with for a 1000 years no wonder she lost her marbles.)" Setsuna read aloud wincing. "Basically that is all for now. As you explained for every hour that takes place here only a minute passes at home so we should be home three to six hours from when they were thrown here. I doubt what we still have running loose in our timeline will get out of control in that time."

Setsuna sat back looking at the Time Gates, "That blasted energy field prevents me from getting any better ratio than 1 minute to 1 hour. In the time it took me to find out when and where they were sent and figure out who to send and where to send them nearly a _day_ had already passed. And that is the best we are going to get."

"So by the time we actually see something it will have happened that many hours ago?" asked Mercury.

"That is about it. So for all practical purposes our Ranma and Akane are on their own until that blasted field fades."

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Cologne settled into the tree to observe what was going on. Her grand daughter's report had been a really jumbled mess. First something about a demonic warning, then a beautiful but powerful woman warrior with two Akanes and Ranmas, and finally a terrified rambling about another far more skilled Shampoo and a green haired lady. Cologne narrowed her eyes at what she saw. Two son-in-laws, two Akanes one of whom was on the fence, and right behind were the beautiful woman, the green haired lady, and the second Shampoo. The sound of a bell signaled the arrival of her great grand daughter and everyone vacated the fence.

"Airen take Shampoo on date?" asked her grand daughter jumping from her bike.

The other Shampoo looked at one of the son-in-laws and in far better Japanese asked, "This is nearly seven months later than our own world, right?"

"Yep, Sham Pu it is."

"Then why is my counterpart talking like she has an intelligence on par with one of Akane's training dummies?" asked Sham Pu annoyed.

"For one of two reasons. Either she wants people to underestimate her intelligence by talking like an idiot or she is so arrogant she fells she doesn't need to properly learn the language," said the green haired lady.

"Guardian Pluto, given General Yamoto's timeline I think we can limit that to arrogance, sorry Sham Pu," said one Akane.

"As I said don't apologize for telling the truth. Better to face it then to try and disguise it," said Sham Pu.

"Shampoo take care of impostor," said Shampoo advancing on Sham Pu.

"Certainly has a one track mind. Her grandmother is in that tree over there looking in on this whole mess," said Guardian Pluto.

"The Old Ghoul is watching this? Isn't that going to cause problems?" asked one son-in-law.

"Only for this timeline's version of my tribe and this idiotic version of me," said Sham Pu angrily, "By the authority granted to me by the Book of Law I proclaim the Laws regarding the Kisses of Death and Marriage in this world to be null and void."

Shampoo laughed, "Impostor fool. No one has that type of authority."

Sham Pu flared up a red battle aura, "I am no fool you arrogant mortal," said Sham Pu as she grabbed the front of her counterpart's dress, "One race _does_ have that authority and I will explain it in two words so that pile of yak dung you call a brain can understand," yelled Sham Pu.

Cologne backed in fear as Sham Pu opened a third eye. "Sanjiyan Unkara," she screamed throwing Shampoo into Kuno knocking them both out. Sham Pu then closed her three eyes and the battle aura vanished. Opening three eyes again Sham Pu smiled at one of the Ranmas, "Just enough force to knock them out but not enough to actually break anything," she said.

Cologne had seen more than enough. From what they had said it was clear that these people as incredible as it sounded were time travelers but not from just the past or future but from another history altogether. The Elder hopped down and over to Sham Pu. "Mind telling me how you got access to the Pool of Drowned Sanjiyan Unkara? That pool is forbidden."

Sham Pu smiled wickedly, "Not to someone who has been given a Blessing by a native Sanjiyan Unkara."

Guardian Pluto nodded. "I knew your tribe held my mother's people in reverence but I didn't want to risk the possibility that being half human or from another history invalidating me from giving such a blessing. That is another reason I got Ranma's ancestor Amaterasu involved; she is a pure blood native in both senses Sanjiyan Unkara and so valid for such a Blessing. Furthermore even if she didn't give it as Ranma's eldest female relative she could argue on his behalf."

"So that was the Blessing she was talking about giving me when she first talked to you!" exclaimed one of the Ranmas.

Guardian Pluto smiled, "Though given the pools mixing I still had to convince the Tendos of the advantage of becoming Sanjiyan Unkara and given their treatment of Ranma Amaterasu here in giving them her Blessing. Given the mess I made of Crystal Tokyo I felt flexibility was the key to this situation."

Cologne visibly paled. If what this woman was saying was true than she had given her grand daughter's main adversary the power to totally dismantle her tribe's laws. The situation had become very dangerous not only from a cultural standpoint but from a tactic standpoint. In terms of raw power not even the self proclaimed kami of Phoenix Mountain Sa Fulang was brash enough to challenge the weakest of Sanjiyan Unkara. Unfortunately thanks to some poor decisions on her part and that of the Elder Council more than just the Laws involving the Kisses were in play. The situation was long past the point of pack up, go home, and forget about it. "Honored One, it is not that simple."

Sham Pu sighed, she had suspected as much given the extremes her counterpart had gone to to get Ranma as her husband. "Given that we will have to return to our own timeline soon I think we need to know _exactly_ what is involved. Especially as I already have some revision plans for the Book of Law."

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Saying Ke Lun was not happy was on par with "Houston we have a problem," ie understatement central. She already knew that her counterpart had bungled things by how out of control her great grand daughter had gotten but she never imagined it was this bad. The note her great grand daughter had sent back showed that both her counterpart and the Elder Council had created a situation where Shampoo could never return without Ranma. That Ranma had clearly fallen into love with Akane only served to complicate matters. The total desperation Shampoo was feeling was causing her take actions that at best make Ranma distrust the Joketsuzoku if not make him despise them. The worst part was that there were indications that the rapidly forming Ranko personality had a deeper resentment of the Joketsuzoku than Ranma did.

Ke Lun sighed, in trying to help that other Ranma Guardian Pluto had unknowingly thrown a mixture of gasoline and dynamite into an already raging fire. It was only a matter of time before things exploded with the Joketsuzoku likely taking the main force of the blast. Ke Lun stared at the Time Gates and shook her head. Going into that other world would accomplish nothing. Her counterpart Cologne was seven months her senior and knew the complexities of that world better than she did. Furthermore Sham Pu was handling this from not only the aspect of a Joketsuzoku warrior but also as Sanjiyan Unkara. Showing up would at best muddle things and at worst undermine any authority Sham Pu had.

Ke Lun had to chuckle a little. Long before a comic book writer turned the phase 'with great power comes great responsibility' into a cliché there was the phase 'heavy upon the brow sits the crown.' which basically meant the same thing. The duty to society or giri as the Japanese called it is supposed to supersede personal desire or ninjo. If the reverse happens than disaster was nearly always the result. Even Machiavelli had realized that the personal ambitions and desires of his ideal prince must take second stage to the welfare of the State. Somewhere along the line both her counterpart and the Elder Council had forgotten that fact and this mess was the result.

As much as Ke Lun wished her great grand daughter was up to the challenge the fact was that things had gone too far to be solved with all the other chaos due to happen in that world especially in two short weeks. Battles with Ha Bu, Rouge, and Sa Fulang still lay in the future and given the way things seemed to happened around Ranma and Ranko she wouldn't be surprised if conflict with the seven lucky gods would also occur in that other world. No the best plan was to learn as much as possible about mistakes in that other world and not make them in this one. Preferably without making new ones in the process. Though as she looked over at Tsukino Ikuko listening to what had happened that was not very likely.

Tsukino Ikuko had seen the events unfold on TV and took off to Nerima district the moment all those other versions of her daughter showed up. By the time she had shown up the Time Games had already sent all the groups through time. Unlike the reporters who kept a respective distance from the Time Gates she went straight toward her daughter and grand daughter. She had to shake her head at that; thanks to time travel she now had a grand daughter as old as if not older than her daughter.

In the course of the last hour Ikuko had gotten a good overview of what was going on. As much as she wanted to protect her daughter it was clear that was impossible. Usagi had been right in that the influence of her life as the Moon Princess was having a direct influence on her current life regardless of what Usagi personally wanted. However there were some things that she her mother _could_ control. Walking over she reached down and grabbed Sailors Neptune and Uranus by the ear and pulled both of them up. All the while they both were yelping and trying to keep Usagi's enraged mother from ripping their ears off.

"Now listen to me you two," she said in a cold tone that made everyone stop and listen, "I don't know what idiocy you two did in that other world to turn my daughter into this Kaiyanwang Paradox maniac and right now I don't care," she said pinching their ears harder, "But you **ever** hurt my daughter in this timeline and being raped by Kaiyanwang Paradox's lust demons will be the _least_ of your worries. Do I make myself very clear on this matter?" she asked twisting their ears.

"Yes Tsukino-sama," they both said in pain at which point Ikuko let them go. Usagi and Black Lady both gulped as Ikuko walked over with the look that every child knew mean that the dreaded lecture was coming. Ikuko knelt down and looked her daughter straight in the eye, "Now young lady, I am not happy about you keeping this from me this time around. You were gone all these odd hours and worrying your mother to death about you using drugs or fooling around. Now that _both_ your superhero identities are public knowledge I trust you have planned some protection measures that do not involve turning our home into a demonic zoo?"

Usagi slowly nodded as her mother turned her attention to Black Lady, "I know that at times mother daughter relationships can be rocky but I expect my grand daughter to come up with a better solution to dealing with differences with her mother than trying to take over the Earth with the help of some undead mass murderer," Ikuko said as Black Lady sheepish looked at the ground. Putting her hand under Black Lady chin Ikuko lifted the young woman's face up so their eyes met. "Now no more of this take over the world nonsense. Right?" Black Lady nodded her head as Prince Demando rose and bowed to Ikuko.

"Greetings my lady," he said.

Ikuko rose and bowed back, "You seemed to be such a cultured pleasant man."

Prince Demando smiled taking Ikuko's hand and kissing it. "I can safely say that our plans to take over the past are at an end, my lady. Especially as your daughter has seen and will prevent our Crystal Tokyo from being your future," Prince Demando then frowned, "That said we cannot abandon our quest to free our Crystal Tokyo from your daughter's well meant but misguided rule."

Usagi stood and clasped Prince Demando hands, "Perhaps I can reason with her, especially as the three people largely responsible for her turning out that way have either changed or died."

Prince Demando nodded, "Once this situation is resolved the Sailor Senshi and the Black Moon Family need to sit down and simply talk to each other."

Usagi smiled, "I think that is something we all need."

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Paradox was doing a major revaluation of sending Yakumo, Sham Pu, and Guardian Pluto to the hybrid timeline she had found. Mainly in part because she seemed to have unleashed the same kind of energy that gave Setsuna problems in viewing Nerima's future. She was having increasing difficulty in viewing the timeline and it was no fun to alter a world if you couldn't easily see what was going on in it. Every so often one of her projects turned sour like this and it was best to cut her losses and let the timeline go. Also Paradox was having major misgivings about leaving Pharaoh 90 run lose as there was still the little issue of what Neo-Queen Serenity would do when she woke up.

Struggling with her increasing unstable Time Gates Paradox watched Ranma learn a few additional abilities from his counterpart and smiled. Two of the three parts of her plan had worked; everyone had so busy dealing with the visitors and three of their group being in the future of another timeline that sneaking in and subduing Snow Princess Kaguya had been child's play as had bringing her here. Deciding who got to 'play' with Kaguya now that had been the hard part. In the end it was decided that the Marquis de Sade would get Kaguya as a new plaything but Paradox had made him promise to hold off until she came down. Paradox needed a way to relax as she had to deal with three potential problems - the Neo-Queen Serenities of this and Guardian Pluto's timeline and Sailor Galaxia.

Paradox frowned. She had a moderate list of timelines to be very careful with, and Sailor Galaxia timelines were right behind those that had those insanely powered humanoid beings with the monkey tail. Sailor Galaxia timelines always bothered her and now that she knew the Senshi were in fact originally from another reality she knew why. The events of a Sailor Galaxia timeline did not fit into the history of the Moon Kingdom or into previous history. The basic fact was there were a _lot_ of things wrong in every one of them. At this stage the Outers knew Usagi was the Moon Princess and so why did they keep challenging her all the time? Usagi knew that Mamoru was her intended and yet she was fooling around with that Seiya starlight? And then there was that Chibi-Chibi kid, light of hope or whatever she was.

The only thing that made any sense was that like the Sailor Senshi Sailor Galaxia and the Starlights were not native to this dimension. As with the Sailor Senshi, there was a memory distortion field resulting from their arrival that made everybody accept their presence without noticing that several critical details were off (like information regarding the history of the planets). As demonstrated with Luna's muddled memory this had several side effects in terms of memories and personality.

The one good thing was in the Black Moon Kingdom timelines what ever caused Sailor Galaxia to come to this reality never happened. Which was precisely why Paradox had chosen the 30th century Nemesis in the timeline Guardian Pluto had created when she killed her (relatively speaking) slightly younger self to move her kingdom to. It had been a matter of practicality; it had taken cannibalization of the entire lab of the self proclaimed 'greatest genius of the universe' just to hold everything together at the End of Time and that was now failing. As it failed the breakdown of reality made accessing the past became harder and harder resulting in losing access to the past totally. If she wanted to continue living and indulging in her personal pleasures while setting up thing for her successors she had to permanently move her kingdom to the past. Paradox shook her head. Enough of deep thought, time to play with De Sade.

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	22. Chap 22 Ringing the Bell

Chap 22 Ringing the Bell

Ranma 1/2 is the creation of Rumiko Takahashi, 3x3 eyes (Sazan Eyes) is the creation of Yuzo Takada, Sailor Moon is the creation of Naoko Takeuchi. There are also a few cameos from other anime. All are used without permission. This fan-fiction isn't intended for commercial use but is rather a tribute to Ranma 1/2, 3x3 Eyes, and Sailor Moon.

"Egotistical little spoiled brat," exclaimed Akane as she pounded another cinderblock into fine powder her three eyes showing intense anger. "If I _never_ see that timeline again it will be too soon."

"On that we all agree," said Ranma as he did a partially complex kata, "The more I learned there the more I realized that I was lucky to have fallen into the Pool of Drowned Female Sanjiyan Unkara and get Ranko as a sister. Because without her I would still be a social challenged chauvinistic jerk who knew next to nothing outside martial arts."

"Shampoo this. Shampoo that. ARRRGGGGHHH!" Exclaimed Sham Pu as she leapt between Fei-Oh. "Seven additional months in Japan and my counterpart still sounded like an idiot and couldn't use a pronoun if that pathetic thing she called honor depended on it."

"'I know what is best for Neo-Queen Serenity.' Yeh right." grumbled Guardian Pluto as she slammed her Time Staff into the head of a training dummy splitting its head in two. "Sailor Pluto, you wouldn't know what was good for anybody if it came up and bit you on the rear end."

When the five travelers came back everybody decided to get some sleep and in the morning kick around some of the plans formed during the six hour wait. Ranma commented that when they first woke up he, Akane, Sham Pu, and Guardian Pluto were going to in his words 'work off two weeks of frustration'. It quickly became apparent to everybody who also woke up at 4 a.m. that much of that frustration was with their own crosstime counterparts.

Seijuurou Ginga and Natsumi by contrast were feeling anything but frustrated. Using their human identities they had learned enough about love to understand the feelings they had for one another were brother-sister love. They were ecstatic when they noticed that the Makaiju improved slightly as they explored these feelings. However the improvement was slow; for faster improvement they needed stronger versions of love brought near their tree. The big problem was how to get people more deeply in love near their tree without hurting the emotion it so badly needed. But unlike before their tree was now improving so there was plenty of time. They simply had to keep looking.

Paradox was also looking but in her case it was at the situation with Pharaoh 90. The removal of Mistress 9 hadn't changed the Witches 5 one bit; they were still a bunch of backstabbing powercrazed bunch of baka. In that world's most likely futures, Eudial would still be killed by Mimete who would in turn be killed by Tellu. Then Tellu would be killed by one of her own plant creations. Viluy would suffer much the same fate via her nano robots. Only Kaolinite showed anything really resembling brains but without Mistress 9 there really wasn't much she could do.

Pharaoh 90 would cause problems but his key goal was DOA unless he teamed up with somebody and the way things were going that didn't look likely. No the main problem was what the Neo-Queen Serenities of this and the other future would do. Also Sailor Galaxia was a big question mark. Paradox had no idea what was the trigger for Sailor Galaxia to emerge and odds seemed to be about even for her showing up. The one good thing was while her magic was somehow related to the Sanjiyan Unkara Sailor Galaxia had much the same problem as the Sailor Senshi; enough Shi-Yao-Chong around and she was in serious trouble. At the rate the Sailor Senshi were accumulating power, skills, and allies they could easily handle Sailor Galaxia if she did show up in two years time. Heck in the timeline Setsuna saw Choukai destroy the Sailor Senshi the guy had gone on to pound Sailor Galaxia's Senshi into hamburger and then turned into a humanoid Shi-Yao-Chong in his battle with Sailor Galaxia. Pai was later able to escape this transformation by knocking Choukai into a lava lake and Yakuma pull her out of the resulting corpse; Sailor Galaxia had no such option or help and so was literally consumed. Yet for all his mastery of Sanjiyan Unkara Ward magic Choukai was nothing compared to the power that could be used by a fully trained Wu or Sanjiyan Unkara.

Neo-Queen Serenity, now there was a real headache. Especially as taking her kingdom to this place and time had drained Paradox to her Queen Beryl levels of raw power. Paradox had only two advantages: 900 years of no threats had resulted in the Sailor Senshi here getting real sloppy and her Inners had been reincarnated as demoness. While Paradox could hold up on the remains of Duelist Kingdom in the 30th century her main concern was either timeline's Neo-Queen Serenity going back in time and doing something stupid. Paradox then stiffened. Well the going back in time part had happened; Paradox hoped that the doing something stupid part would not be too bad.

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Breakfast at the Tendo home was being held outside as there simply was not enough room in the house for everybody. Everybody agree that there was no way that Japan's current defense force could even begin to handle the new threats posed. Then a Takuhi with USAF markings and the bars of a Captain showed up with a message in its claws and would only let Emperor Hirohito near it. After reading the message Emperor Hirohito shook his head. "Seems the force that has turned parts of Japan upside down has done the same thing to US Purple Base Tsunami," he said causing his wife Nagako to pale.

"US Purple Base Tsunami?" asked Akane who immediately saw the Tekuhi stiffen at the question.

"Purple is a term used in the US military to refer to someone or in this case something that belongs to all three main branches of the military - Army, Navy, and Air Force," Nagako said quietly, "Tsunami is the name given to the base which under General Yamoto's command oversees all US military operations in China."

"The base uses what was in 1943 the latest in military development - the ability to easily shift and out of the Sanjiyan Unkara world which is more commonly known as Sazan," said Emperor Hirohito as he reread the message, "This note tells me that after two days of trying to reconcile the records there with their own memories the support group of the base caused it to transfer to this world."

Emperor Hirohito frowned and wrote something down on a piece of paper and then folded it, "Captain, Operation Overload is suspended until we can sort out this mess. For the time being Base Tsunami is to remain on alert," he said as he handed the folded message to the Takuki, "These are my written orders and you are to use Enigma JN26 code Saotome in all further communications. _Dismissed_," Emperor Hirohito finished with a crisp salute. The Tekuhi stiffen and brought its wing up returning the salute and then flew up into the sky. Emperor Hirohito stood until even his now enhanced senses could not pick up the Tekuhi at which point he relaxed letting out a sigh.

"I take it that is another partial duplication of General Yamoto's world," Nabiki stated frowning.

Emperor Hirohito nodded, "And far more destabilizing to world affairs that what happened to Hiroshima and Nagasaki. We have a fully functional US Purple Base with no human personal sitting right off the coast of Japan with enough firepower to wreck some serious havoc in Asia," Emperor Hirohito closed his eyes and slumped slightly. He then took a deep breath and opened his eyes, "Once again Japan's future as a nation falls on my shoulders only this time it is not as Emperor Hirohito but as US Brigadier General Yamoto," Hirohito dryly chuckled, "Well at least the people going to ROTC school in Hiroshima and Nagasaki will have a base to train at."

Hirohito then started to rub his forehead with the fingers of his left hand. "The US ambassador and Japan's current Prime Minister were getting nervous with the transformation of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. This latest development is going to have both of them coming off the walls. Well this throws most of our plans into the rubbish heap. As they say in America 'we have a whole new ballgame'."

"I guess I don't have enough information but wouldn't the logical thing to do be to shut down the base?" asked Sailor Moon.

Hirohito wryly smiled not minding the stares of the other Sailor Senshi at their leader, "If it was a military base by _our_ world's standards that would be the correct reaction. The problem is that this military base was designed along totally different lines of thought."

"Ami, Sailor Moon actually asked something intelligent," whispered Rei.

"I know. I worried too," replied Ami.

"I don't understand," stated Sailor Neptune.

"I think I do and the implications are staggering," said Ranma, "Think about it. In a world where martial arts and spirit summoning are the driving forces of military might then technological development would go down a totally different path. I mean with Ki and magic attacks like the Oppenheimer Retributive Strike around development of things like nuclear weapons becomes kind of redundant."

Hirohito nodded and pulled out the laptop computer he had brought to the meeting, "Why put time and money into developing military hardware when you can simply call forth a demon or spirit that can do much the same thing? Conversely to manage the ever growing types of demons and spirits known you need a mobile, easily updatable, and fast method of identifying them. Hence computer development is much further along than it is in this world," Hirohito opened the laptop and started typing, "500 MB hard drive, 300 MHz CPU, wireless communication. Was state of the art when in came out, in 1975," he said as he pulled out what looked like a flashlight and held it to his eye.

"Retina pattern confirmed, please state name for voice print check," said the computer in a synthetic female voice as everyone looked on in amazement. "US Army Brigadier General Hirohito Yamoto," said Hirohito. "Voice print confirmed. Asian Theater database overview access granted. Do you want full access?" intoned the computer.

"Negative. Bring up public information files on US Purple base Tsunami, audio and visual," Hirohito said as he sat the computer down. A ball of energy formed above the computer and as the computer described each creature an image formed with a human figure beside it for reference. "Eagle Takuhi, subgroup F12 though 14. Air fighter. Average cruising speed Mach 1.5, maximum speed and ceiling classified; Liberator Fei-Oh, subgroup B19 through 23. short to mid range bomber. Average cruising speed Mach 1, maximum speed and ceiling classified," An image of a dragon like creature appeared. "Superfortress Ya-Long, subgroup BF25-29. medium to long range fighter-bomber. Average cruising speed Mach 0.9, maximum speed and ceiling classified."

"Hold," said Hirohito as he looked at the dragon like creature. "In the mid 1930s US and SDR had a major shift in military thinking toward Oni, spirits, and martial arts while Japan still continued worked with the old technology models. If our battle with the US was a total baka mistake in this world it was even more of one in that other world. Pearl Harbor wasn't a battle it was a full fledged disaster; the F12s and BF25s tore the attack waves and Japanese Navy to ribbons. They did much the same to the air defense Japan was able to muster."

"Many of the beings stationed at Tsunami were WWII veterans their human pilots having grown old and retired," Hirohito said walking around the image, "All these beings of this world know is the information on that base and right now I am the only one they will even remotely listen to," Hirohito paused looking at the image, "Nearly forty years I made what I thought was the hardest choice I would have ever have to make. I was wrong. _This_ is the hardest choice I have ever made. For the safety and welfare of not just this Japan but this world there can be no more Emperor Hirohito only General Yamoto. For all practical intents and purposes Emperor Hirohito is dead and has been reincarnated as General Yamoto."

Hirohito then pointed out that keeping military base Tsunami under control and dealing the consequences of its existence was going to take most of his time effectively removing him from consideration in any short time defense plans. He also pointed out that the incident at Usagi's school indicated that Pharaoh 90 was still pure heart crystal hunting in Juubangia district of the Minato ward for what ever reason. In a way this worked out for the best as the Sanjiyan Unkara Ganso Musabetsu Kakuto Ryu was a long way from being in any shape to train mortals in even if they were reincarnated Sanjiyan Unkara and Wu.

Sadly with his combined training as a martial artist and his now part time status as a Sanjiyan Unkara (abet female one) Genma had been able to spot a dangerous even potentially fatal flaw in the Sazan Ryu that he and Ke Lun had initially missed. The painful fact was the Sazan Ryu relied way too much on magic; one or worse several Shi-Yao-Chong and you were in serious trouble. This made it nearly useless as a supplement to the Sailor Senshi' magical powers. Tsukino Ikuko was less than thrilled when she found out during this talk that Usagi's idea of using Sanjiyan Wards would turn her house into an all you can eat buffet for any Shi-Yao-Chong that came along or was summoned. Queen Eclipse pointed out that it was better than no protection at all and would not cause the problems that having a large collection of oni would. Ikuko reluctantly agreed to that and the idea of the Sailor Senshi present and future keeping an eye on her house.

Setsuna then grumbled "Now what is that maniac up to?" as the Time Gates formed an image.

**---Begin Time Gates images of Crystal Tokyo--- **

Everyone widened their eyes at the carnage they saw. The broken bodies of the Inners were all over the place with a badly beaten Pluto over in a corner; the twisted remains of Tuxedo Mask laid in a pool of dark red liquid that nobody really wanted to identify. Standing there with a totally bewildered look on his face was a tall muscular green skinned demon. "What in the name of the infernal realms happened here?" he asked.

"Pluto didn't want me to find out that the Outers rather than one of one of Pharaoh 90's daimons was responsible for the death of my family," said Neo-Queen Serenity sitting on the ground the figure of Wiseman in her lap. "She was willing to kill all of us to prevent me from traveling to the past. It's lucky Sailor Saturn was out with her new friend or she might have been hurt, again."

"It's ironic, " said Wiseman softly, "All this time I have been trying to destroy you and the Sailor Senshi and my last action was to save you," Wiseman reached into his robes and pulled out the Dark Crystal, "You were as much a victim as those you sent to Nemisis. For good or bad you are the only one I can trust to make sure my people not left alone."

Wiseman stiffened and went limp the Dark Crystal falling out of his hand which along with the rest of this body crumbled to dust.

"Neo-Queen Serenity?" asked the demon.

"No. Not any more," said Neo-Queen Serenity as she grabbed the Dark Crystal and stood Wiseman's now empty cloak in her right hand anger clear in her voice, "Neo-Queen Serenity was the name of a vapid airhead who let herself be manipulated like a puppet while her supposed allies killed both her friends and family. Now my only remaining living friends are a living weapon of destruction, demons, and the rulers of Hell itself. A contradiction, a Paradox," Neo-Queen Serenity brought her hand to her face in thought "Hmm. I like that as a name. But I need a different title to go with it. Would you know of any well known and fearsome title?"

"Yes. Kaiyanwang. It means Demon-eyed-king," said the demon cocking his head to one side.

"Kaiyanwang Paradox. Yes I _like_ that," Neo-Queen Serenity put the Dark Crystal and Ginzuishou together in one hand raising it shouted "Dark Crystal Moon Power Make Up!" Then followed the standard transformation sequence but the moment Neo-Queen Serenity landed dark and ominous flowed from both the Dark Crystal and Ginzuishou into her.

"Whare are you doing?" asked the demon startled.

Neo-Queen Serenity smiled very unpleasantly, "Combining all the evil or negative energy the Ginzuishou gathered from my cleanings, mixing it with the Dark Crystal, and putting the whole thing into me," she said as black energy flowed from her compact into her. Her outfit turned jet black while the blue trim turned to the color of dried blood. Neo-Queen Serenity then swung the cloak around her and rolling her head back laughed in a manner that put Kodachi to shame, "Neo-Queen Serenity is dead. Long live Kaiyanwang Paradox," At which point the Time Gates went blank.

**---End Time Gates images of Crystal Tokyo--- **

Queen Eclipse turned toward Usagi expecting an ear piecing wail but instead saw a scowling face. Fearful that her counterpart had finally reached her emotional limit Eclipse spoke softly "Usagi, remember that was a glimpse into what _might_ have been. It is not a possible future for either of us."

"I know which is why I am not going to put Uranus and Neptune into full body casts," Usagi said in a cold calm voice that sent chills down everyone's spine. Ikuko looked at her daughter with a worried expression that turned into a cold sweat when she saw the look in her daughter's eyes. A look of fierce anger Ikuko could handle but Usagi's eyes were cold and piercing appearing totally devoid of _any_ emotion. Then Usagi smiled with that same non expression in her eyes giving her a frightening expression; Ikuko and Queen Eclipse both backed up nervously. Usagi walked over to the two Outers who were now both wanting to be _anywhere_ but here. Facing an enraged Sailor Saturn without their powers sounded a lot safer than being in front of Usagi right now.

"Perhaps the mother in my previous life, Queen Serenity, was willing to excuse your over protectiveness but I will not," said Usagi in a sweet calm voice, "You two will use what free time you have to train under Saotome Ranma and Ranko so you will have non lethal options in dealing with problems," Usagi then put her hands on the shoulders of Uranus and Neptune, "One finally thing. If you _ever_ even think of harming Usagi's mother, daughter, or friends in this timeline you will answer to me. DO. I. MAKE. MYSELF. CLEAR. MORTALS?" Usagi yelled her voice now full of anger bordering on hatred the thumbs of her hands pushing into the spots where the shoulder blade met the neck causing Sailors Uranus and Neptune to fall to the ground as they tried to remove Usagi's vise like grip.

It is one thing when a normal person pushes in at the nerve cluster where the shoulder blades met the neck; it is quite another thing when it is done by someone with the Ki and Chakra reserves of a Sanjiyan Unkara whose strength is boosted by the power of the Silver Millennium. The pain the two Outers were now feeling surpassed anything they had felt before.

"Yes. You have made yourself clear," said Sailor Uranus through gritted teeth.

Usagi let the two Outers go and then blinked as if surprised, "Guys, what just happened?" she asked a worried tone in her voice. Usagi then blinked again and started wailing her head off, "WAHHHHAAAA. The stress of all this has driven me to the point I am hearing voices in my head."

Usagi stopped in mid wail and her eyes became cold, "Usagi, you bring a whole new meaning to the phrase, 'for crying out loud.' I think I'll keep control until you calm down."

Ikuko was the first to find her voice, "Who are you and what have you done to my daughter?" she asked her voice full of anger and fear.

"I see you mortals still tend to jump to conclusions. If you must know I am the personality of the woman your daughter was during the Silver Millennium. Princess Serenity at your service," said the woman bowing a glint of humor in her eyes.

Setsuna frowned, "Serenity, Usagi has her own life to live."

Serenity laughed, "I am not taking over permanently; I just couldn't stand the wail that comes out of this mortal's mouth. When she goes to sleep she and I can talk this over like two intelligent people," Serenity then frowned, "Make that one intelligent person and one wailing Meatball Head. It is going to be a long night."

Serenity cocked her head to the side, "I'll let you in control on one and only one condition: no wailing. Deal?" Serenity then nodded and her expression turned to one of befuddlement. "Guys, I'm scared," said Usagi doing her best not to cry again.

"What is Usagi scared of?" asked a puzzled Pai.

"Pai perhaps nearly everyone in your tribe had two personalities but its not something that is well _normal_ among humans," said Ranma as he walked up to Usagi and gently put his hands on the side of her shoulders, "Of all the people here I know what you are going through. When Ranko formed I was well _frightened_ that I was going to become a girl in mind as well as body. Then I realized that Ranko didn't want to replace me but wanted to work with me," Ranma then chuckled, "That doesn't mean we see eye to eye on everything. In fact we can get into some real intense mental spats at times."

Ranma then dropped his hands to his side, "Think of Serenity as an always there big sister and you should be fine."

Usagi nodded. "Ok, I guess it would be kind of fun to have a big sister around," Turning to the Inners and Outers, she smiled, "Have fun guys, see you tomorrow," said waving. Usagi then turned to her mother, "Mom, let's go home; we have a lot to talk about," Usagi said smiling as she reached out and took both her mother's and Queen Eclipse's hands.

Ikuko looked at Queen Eclipse and narrowed her eyes. Queen Eclipse signed under the look, "Despite the way my costume looks I am _nothing_ like Paradox, mom. In fact it seems she went to a lot of trouble to make sure I was not like her."

Ikuko slowly nodded her head, "That said we are going to have a long talk about Sailor Moon, Neo-Queen Serenity, and Paradox, young lady."

Usagi winced while Eclipse laughed, "Young lady?! Mom, I am over 1,000 years old!" she said as they walked out of the Tendo's back yard. Black Lady giggled "If any one here is a young lady it's me. I am only 10 years old," Ikuko stumbled a little and just stared at Black Lady. "I'll explain on the way home," said Black Lady.

Ranma shook his head smiling sadly watching the foursome talk as they walked. Ten years on the road had made for a very strained relationship with his father and his mother might as well be a stranger. Well now he had plenty of time. He turned and found himself staring into the eager face of Sailor Jupiter. "Ranko said I needed martial artist training to realize the potential she saw in me. You wouldn't be burdened if you had one more student, would you?" she asked.

Ranma shook his head grimly, "No, but I must warn you that learning the Ganso Musabetsu Kakuto Ryu can be brutal. It will not be easy, not by a long shot."

Sailor Jupiter nodded, "I took up martial arts as a method of self control but I want to go beyond that." Sailor Jupiter then leaned over and whispered in Ranma's ear "By the way my real name is Kino Makoto."

Ranma smiled at the girl's show of trust, "Well let's first see what your Sailor Senshi form can do physically."

What followed was two minutes of attacks, counter attacks, and parries. Ranma was quickly realizing that the power up the Senshi got was trying to simulate Sanjiyan Unkara levels of Ki and Chakra though magic. However while Ki and Chakra could increase magical power, magic in of itself could not truly emulate Ki and Chi. Against a magic resistant or worst draining being the Senshi would have next to no defense. Furthermore the powerup did nothing in regards to skill so Ranma quickly got through Jupiter's defense and this is when he got a rude surprise. Hitting her was like punching a block of iron; the Senshi's outfits make have looked like perverted version of school uniforms but they had a toughness surpassing that of any armor Ranma knew of.

Finally Ranma signaled for them to stop. "Well that confirms our worst fears," Ranma said darkly as Sham Pu quietly nodded. "The only way to effectively train any of you Senshi is for you to be in your untransformed state. Deprived of your secret identities that is going to make your families a target."

"That is no problem, Sensei. I live alone," Jupiter said smiling sadly, "Besides given that everyone now knows who Sailor Moon really is it not going to take any great genius to figure out who the rest of us are."

Ranma frowned, the girl was right. The way things were going all the Senshi might was well have neon signs above their homes by the end of the week. Especially as thanks to Paradox the news media has seen (and likely filmed) Sailor Moon's untransformed counterpart from Grandmaster's timeline. Perhaps that was part of some grand plan of Paradox or the woman just like causing problems. Regardless of the reason Ranma knew that training the Senshi in martial arts had taken on an added urgency.

Ranma considered Uranus and Neptune for a moment. He had a hunch that Uranus was the dominate personality of the pair. He felt that if he could convince Uranus to accept a training method that Neptune would however reluctant also do it. The main problem was not only what to train them in but _how_ to train them. Ranma nodded to himself. "Pops, Elder Ke Lun, Sham Pu, Parvati, Akane, and Hotaru could you met me in the dojo I want to work on a training regimen and I need your input." he said as he walked to the Dojo.

The fivesome stood and Genma looked in the direction of the Outers, "This should not take long. You two are to stay here. None of us are going to be happy if we have to look for either of you," Genma said in a stern voice. He watched in satisfaction as the two Outers simply nodded their heads. Once in the dojo they found Ranma sitting on the floor. Following his example they also sat down.

Ranma frowned and then calmly spoke. "Pai was right in your defense, Pops. To someone not familiar to martial arts training many of the training methods are not only harsh if not down right brutal but dangerous as well. The one thing Akane and I realized is that the philosophy of a school is its main driving force. It determines what is valued as important to the school and just as importantly the methods one uses to get there."

Ke Lun nodded, "I begin to understand. We have seen and heard enough in the just last two days to know that the ends do not always justify the means."

"That timeline we were in for two weeks also showed that over focusing on a goal has bad consequences as well," commented Sham Pu.

Ranma nodded and looked over at his father, "Pops what is your assessment of the Sailor Senshi?"

Genma frowned stroking his chin, "They are powerful in their Senshi forms however if your match with Jupiter was any indication they do next to no training in their normal forms. In fact I would go one step further and say I don't think that they do any training at all."

Akane nodded, "I am afraid I have to agree with your father. The Senshi were totally pathetic in that battle with Mistress 9. Like the dating horde they were getting in each other's way preventing them or any potential ally from effectively helping. In their own way they are as dense as that counterpart of mine we had to deal with; this method of fighting got them killed fighting Queen Beryl and yet they insist on continuing to use it."

"You don't want to just train just those here but all the Sailor Senshi," commented Ke Lun.

"It's more than that," said Parvati holding up her hand with the fingers spread out, "As individuals their non-magical skills range from pathetic to somewhat reasonable but if they functioned as a true team they could offset each other's weaknesses," Parvati finished closing her hand into a fist.

Ranma nodded "That was Ranko's reasoning as well," Ranma then tossed a twig to his father. "A single twig is easy to break but a bundle of twigs takes more effort."

Genma looked at the twig he caught and nodded. "And of the martial artists here only one of us has any experience in training people to function not only as individuals but as a group."

Ranma frowned, "The main concern Ranko and I have is the Joketsuzoku Book of Law."

Ke Lun had to smile, "An interesting concern considering that a Sanjiyan Unkara can overrule not to mention entirely rewrite the Joketsuzoku Book of Law."

Ranma chuckled, "One thing Sham Pu and I found out the hard way is no matter _what_ authority you have you cannot simply go changing the Joketsuzoku Book of Law wily nilly without creating a huge mess."

Sham Pu shook her head sadly, "I tried to change just two laws to help my counterpart and found out that was not all that was involved. Unlike our counterparts there Ranma, Akane, and I _do_ learn from our mistakes.

Ke Lun dropped her smile her face grim, "Part of that mess was due to my counterpart and the entire Elder Council going off and doing something totally idiotic."

"Perhaps, Elder Ke Lun," said Akane, "But our counterparts share some of the blame by not even trying to find out what was involved."

"That brings us back to the main question I had. Just how much of the Joketsuzoku Ryu can you teach without causing too many problems?""

Ke Lun sighed, "It already past the point of causing problems. Both the Phoenix das Feuer Ryu and the other Sanjiyan Unkara Ganso Musabetsu Kakuto Ryu already incorporate many techniques of the Joketsuzoku Ryu. Some of those techniques are prohibited to outsiders, in our timeline at any rate."

"Somehow I don't think the Elder Council is crazy enough to go off and do something to get nearly 3 million people pissed off at them. I mean not even as my worst was _I_ that stupid," stated Genma.

Sham Pu and Ke Lun looked at each other, "They may not be quite that crazy but they could cause problems before they figure out just what is going on," commented Ke Lun.

Ranma signed rubbing his head, "Well let's put something together that will add to the existing problems as little as possible."

Everyone else simply nodded and planning began in earnest. With the noted exception of Hirohito and his wife who after talking to Setsuna had flown back to the Imperial Palace.

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Before one can plan anything one should have some information on which to base decisions. That was what the US, USSR, China, and a good section of Europe were doing with Japan. Unfortunately thanks to the bureaucracy that exists in modern governments the agencies that gather and interpret such information can have their own agendas which are sometimes at odds with the current administration's goals.

Complicating matters was the fact that concerns about what to do about Japan were not limited to the realm of Earth. Part of the problem was that in the SDR timeline Hiroshima and Nagasaki had expanded into the Sanjiyan Unkara World with two full fledged Universities. The Creatures of Darkness that roamed this area had little idea on what to do with these large campuses that had appeared overnight filled with beings who in terms of power were clearly their superiors. A few brave ones had already started making use of the libraries and learning more about their new residents. Of course much of what they learned in regard to history made no sense; which is why a few dozen were going on a little trip to the Earth sections of the two cities.

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Hirohito landed in the palace gardens and stood in thought as his wife descended from his back. "I think that the best use we can put US Purple Base Tsunami to is to establish a presence in Sazan," he said softly.

His wife frowned slightly and then nodded, "You are right. From your counterpart's notes we know Sazan is very sparsely populated and has a wealth of untapped natural resources."

"Not to mention that since much of the geography is similar to Earth Sazan can also be used as a stop gap to the overpopulation problem of countries like India, China, and Japan," Hirohito chuckled, "The treaties my counterpart helped write can be a basis from with to start talks as they give us an insight to the best potential compromises."

Nagako nodded again, "The main problem is convincing the Prime Minister and the US Ambassador to allow us to go into this endeavor."

Hirohito smiled, "Right now Japan is the only country on Earth that has both regular access to Sazan and knowledge on what is there. Thanks to our transformations and US Purple Base Tsunami we have a method to establish good solid relations there," Hirohito narrowed his eyes and lowered his head giving his current 7 meter long dragon form a menacing aspect. "I was serious about what I said at the dojo. For Japan to have any change of survival in this new world Emperor Hirohito is as gone as if he was dead. From now on there can only be US General Yamoto."

Nagako scowled at her husband "What of Empress Nagako? What is her role in this new world?"

"There is no Empress Nagako. There hasn't been one since 1941. My wife _Sanjiyan_ Nagako's role is very important as it has been her understanding of both the human and Sazan worlds that have made my treaty drafts the solid foundations they have been," Hirohito said in a low tone.

Nagako backed up a little from her husband slightly intimated with the passion she felt in his voice. Hirohito no _General Yamoto_ was right. In this new world Emperor Hirohito and Empress Nagako were worse than useless; they were stumbling blocks to much needed negotiations and treaties with Sazan and other realms of existence. General Yamoto and Sanjiyan Nagako by contrast were an asset. For things to even have a chance they had to act as if they had both died and these identities from an alternate history were their new incarnations. Their libraries were filled with books their counterparts had written and then glossed making notes as to mistakes and new insights which would go into a later book. Nagako smiled, Japan's Prime Minister and the US Ambassador would not be meeting the Emperor and Empress of Japan come Monday. They would instead be meeting with General Yamoto and Sanjiyan Nagako.

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The Dojo Yaburi watched as Ranma and the others began training the remaining Sailor Senshi. His experience allowed him to easily read the skill levels of his potential opponents; and he had long figured out he was way outclassed. Even in human form Akane was going to be a problem and in Sanjiyan form well he was basically toast. He looked over as the sign Genma had hung and had to chuckle. By that one simple act Genma had made it next to impossible for any normal human martial artist to beat this dojo. For to challenge a dojo was to challenge all its schools. Against the Ganso Musabetsu Kakuto Ryu alone he would have had a slim chance but against the Sazan Ryu and the school that combined them into one the Sanjiyan Unkara Ganso Musabetsu Kakuto Ryu he was simply a practice dummy.

Dummy was right. In his quest for fame he had gotten himself way in over his head. He had challenged a dojo that taught martial arts schools used by the kami themselves. Honor compelled him to remain even though events had likely made everyone forget about the challenge. He looked over at where the Time Gates had been and sighed. Even time was against him here. In six hours 14 days had passed for five of the kami here and he had seen that even in that short time their skills had noticeably improved. From what he overheard the Time Gates could stretch a single second into an eternity. Perhaps he could still find an honorable way out of this if he just waited.

Kuno was doing more than watching the training; he was evaluating each method as to which he himself would learn. He looked over at Sailor Mars who was learning about ward magic and frowned. Ranma had mentioned that the Sailor Senshi's one weakness was in regards to magic resistant or absorbing beings; so learning that would not help. Ranma and Ke Lun were doing some revisions to the Bakusai Tenketsu, the original method of being tied up and having boulders being thrown at you deemed too dangerous for the Senshi' current skill levels. That left the Kachu Tenshin Amaguriken which Jupiter, Uranus, and Neptune were working on. Their hands were again becoming a mass of burn blisters and Hotaru would have to heal them again so they could continue. Taking off his kimono Kuno sat before the fire and bracing himself against the pain that would come joined in the training.

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Ranma was beginning to understand why many training methods had remained unchanged for centuries; while the goal was clear the reasoning in coming up with the method had been lost to the passage of time. He and Ke Lun were no closer than coming up with an alternative method of teaching the Bakusai Tenketsu then when they started an hour ago.

"I am beginning to understand the problems early sensei had. To know intuitively how to do something but not to a level to come up with an alternative method of training," said Ranma rubbing his forehead.

"Speaking of old problems," said Akane as she gestured to Hotaru, "We still have the problem of how to save Hotaru's father."

Ranma looked up at Hotaru and sighed. "Guardian Pluto talked about this when we were in the alternate timeline. She told us that in her timeline shortly after Mistress 9 showed herself the demon possessing your father left," Ranma then got up, "Pharaoh 90 is the main threat and until we take _him_ out freeing your father now would simply force Pharaoh 90 to try again with some other family."

Hotaru frowned, "We got all this power so why don's we go and pound this Pharaoh 90 into mummy dust?" she asked angrily gesturing to the back yard and its collection of Kami and Oni.

Ke Lun cleared her throat, "I suspect that just as with the Sanjiyan Unkara themselves this Pharaoh 90 is not native to this reality."

"Good insight Elder Ke Lun," said Setsuna from behind them as she continued to try and pull the chestnuts from the fire. "From what I have been able to piece together from my readings the SDR timeline calls other realities Realms and breaks these Realms into two broad categories based on how they interact with Earth: Inner and Outer."

"Sounds like the Senshi," commented Ranma.

"Actually they are very different. An Outer Realm overlaps or overlays Earth to the point that perception and even interaction of Earth is very possible. The spirit Realm of Meido is an example of an Other Realm. An Inner Realm on the other hand is generally totally separate from Earth; Sazan as well as the Heavens and Hells of many religions around the world are examples of Inner Realms," said Setsuna.

Mercury nodded, "And you suspect that Pharaoh 90 like Queen Beryl has his base in an Inner Realm."

"Yes, what little I know of Pharaoh 90's domain it fits all the criteria of an Inner Realm. That means that his world is normally isolated from this one. In fact when I probed into Guardian Pluto's timeline I saw that a gate to Pharaoh 90's world was opened when Sailor Saturn used her most powerful attack and destroyed Pharaoh 90 and his world. If Pharaoh 90's world was an Outer Realm then Earth would have been destroyed as well. Even Outer Realms are hard to contact unless one knows what to look for and an Inner Realm is near impossible simply because there are so many of them."

"So simply put we cannot take the battle directly to Pharaoh 90 simply because in a sense he is _nowhere_ in this reality and we have no idea as to what reality he _is_ in," commented Ranma.

"Much the same is true of Paradox," stated Akane. "Without knowing exactly which one in the myriad of possible Crystal Tokyo futures she has set up camp there is no way to take the battle to her."

"What Guardian Pluto couldn't figure out was why Pharaoh 90 was still pure heart crystal hunting," commented Ranma "Without Mistress 9 to focus its energy the Holy Grail thingy is about as useful as a map of China is in Japan."

"Pharaoh 90 is the least of our concerns," Setsuna commented her voice filled with anger. "Let's not forget about Paradox.'

"Speaking of our least favorite Time Travel Agent," said Akane, "Anybody yet figured out what that mess yesterday was about?"

"Well several of us got a very unflattering look at ourselves," commented Ranma, "Akane and I picked up two new techniques. Perhaps Paradox wants more of a challenge."

"Baka. I am talking about Grandmaster, Queen Millennium, and Valkyrie Moon," said Akane in a playful tone.

"Oh _that_ part of the day. You're forgetting tomboy that from our point of view that was actually two weeks ago," Ranma said with a grin on his face, "I loved it when your counterpart part walked in on us in the furo."

"To think my counterpart called us both perverts," laughed Akane. "Seriously though, I mean there had to be a reason for that other than a distraction."

Ranma thought for a moment, "Pops, did anything strike you as well _off_ with the way the Grandmaster moved?"

Genma looked up from the Sazan Ryu manual and thought for a moment. "He wasn't taking up any defensive positions. In fact, he seemed unconcerned about defending himself," Genma said tapping his cheek with his finger.

"Parvati, did you notice anything strange about Queen Millennium?"

Parvati nodded, "Her magic was for a lack of better term off. Like the magic of the Sailor Senshi, it was Sanjiyan magic but also different. There was something else."

"An emptiness. A void if you will. The ki she was throwing around seemed to have a black aura about it. And the Disrupter for all his confidence seemed to have only the basics of both magic and martial arts," Ranma said looking at Akane.

Kuno stepped up to Hotaru holding up his badly burned hands. Hotaru nodded and used her healing power on them. As she did so Kuno spoke, "The Blue Thunder overheard your comments and thinks he sees a pattern. In all those worlds things were not as they appeared. The Grandmaster was not as skilled as he should have been, Queen Millennium was not using her normal magic, and the Disrupter was fighting evil with evil."

Ranma smiled as a comment Parvati had made about his father the first day they had gone to school went through his mind, 'Even a blind man can hit a target once in a while.' Kuno was right in so much as the people were not as they appeared. Ranma then frowned as a comment by the Grandmaster also went through his mind, "Hey guys I just had a thought. If as the Grandmaster said there were worlds without end histories without number than what attracted Paradox to the particular timelines we have seen or met?"

Setsuna got up in thought her hands also a mass of burns, "Something must have attracted her attention," she said gesturing to Hotaru who was just finishing with Kuno.

"Couldn't she simply looking for timelines with certain things?" asked Ranma.

Akane shook her head, "I doubt it. The Grandmaster basically stated there were an infinity of histories while the very term 'End of Time' implies a finite amount of time. Simply put there would never be enough time to search through an infinity."

Setsuna winced as Hotaru's power healed her burns. "Even if she limited herself to a subset of histories she would still be dealing with an infinity."

Kuno looked up from his now healed hands at Setsuna with a puzzled expression on his face. "The Blue Thunder not understand. Shouldn't limiting her search reduce the number of timelines she is dealing with?"

"It does but not in any meaningful way," Setsuna said as Hotaru finished healing her burns. "Think of your math class and the set of whole numbers that go on forever. Looking at the subset of even whole numbers is not all that useful; sure you have cut the amount by half but it is still an infinity."

Ranma thought for a moment. "Setsuna, how did you find the SDR timeline?" he asked.

"I looked for timeline that involved you going back in time and altering both European and Japanese history in which Emperor Hirohito was not only your pupil but became a US General and helped end WWII in 1942 using a mixture of magic and martial arts. Even then I had to restrict my search to the most favorable timeline that fit all those criteria," said Setsuna.

"Simply put you effectively stacked the deck," said Genma.

Setsuna smiled, "Got me there. Yes I did stack the deck. But with the potential problems that Ranma could have with Okuninushi I needed a timeline that portrayed Ranma in the best possible light and yet was totally plausible."

Okuninushi chuckled, "If that was your idea of a plausible timeline I sure hate to see your idea of an implausible one."

"I have to say that the General Yamoto of that world concentrates on the fact Ranma's actions eliminated three of the most evil governments of the 20th century," Setsuna said solemnly "He tends to gloss over the fact that by preventing Mao from coming to power the internal civil war in China rapidly escalated to the point that it has totally destabilized the region," Setsuna then gave a wry smile, "Why do you think US Purple Base Tsunami has the level of firepower it does? Because that is what the Asian Warlord of the week generally has."

"I wonder how he would use the Ningen No Zou," thought Ranma.

"He probably doesn't use it as his knowledge seemed about on par with ours. Or at least it was that way in 1942," Guardian Pluto said looking at Setsuna.

Setsuna shrugged "The only thing he would tell me about the Ningen No Zou was information we have already figured out; that it was an energy storage, transformation, and amplification artifact."

Genma put his hand to his chin. "Our Emperor Hirohito has access to a computer I assumed was used by General Yamoto. Wouldn't that computer have more information?"

Sailor Mercury focused her eyes beyond her visor. "That computer is at least 15 years beyond anything this world has seen. You saw what Emperor Hirohito had to do just to get _public_ information on that base? I would expect that any kind of classified information has got far more security. Especially as they are aware of other timelines."

"That is not our only problem," Setsuna said as she summoned the Time Gates running her fingers down them. "Ranma's father may have not always been the sharpest knife in the drawer but he at least had a small idea of what he was getting into."

"Small idea is right," Ranma said under his breath.

Setsuna chuckled, "Granted. However my ability to see into anything of the future is totally shot; we are going into the future totally blind." Setsuna frowned, "and that fact scares me no end."

Sailor Mercury looked at her visor and cocked her head. "I wondered how you were able to bring the gates here but now I see that strictly speaking there is nothing _physically_ here."

Setsuna nodded, "These Time Gates are nothing but a relay made of magic, Ki, and Chakra for the energy of the real Time Gates."

Ranma nodded and looked at Ke Lun and his father "Elder, Pops, how would you evaluate our training session so far?" he asked hoping to divert his father's attention from the Time Gates.

Ke Lun thought for a moment, "The Sailor Senshi are highly motivated in learning but the difference between their normal and transformed states is a problem."

Genma nodded in agreement, "In normal form most of them simply do not have the ability to learn the more powerful techniques..."

"And in their transformed states they have much the same problem Sham Pu and the rest of the Sanjiyan Unkara have. Falling back on their innate Ki, Chi, and magic too much," finished Ranma.

Sailors Uranus and Neptune got up from the fire and held up their hands to Hotaru or rather the blackened masses of flesh that that had once been their hands. Ranma was horrified by the condition the two Senshi's hands were in. "The life of a martial artist is full of peril, but I think you two are over doing it."

Hotaru looked at the two Senshi shaking her head. "I told you two that you needed more periodic healing," Hotaru then sighed, "If nothing else you two will be good training subject for my innate healing powers."

"They're getting faster though I agree they did overdue the training a bit," commented Genma. "Elder Ke Lun, I now see that the Sazan Ryu overuses magic so I would like the two of us to come up with alternatives to these techniques that use Ki and Chakra instead."

Ranma settled his eyes on the Time Gates relay again and narrowed his eyes as an image started forming. "What is going on?"

Guardian Pluto sighed, "I was afraid of this. The Time Gates have something akin to an AI which allows them to function the way they do. That AI is reacting to Setsuna considering Genma's request."

"AI?" asked a puzzled Ranma.

"Artificial Intelligence," said Mercury flatly.

Ranma's eyes widened, "Artificial _Intelligence_?! You mean ...the Time Gates _think_?!"

Guardian Pluto smiled and then laughed, "To certain degree yes, Ranma. But they are not complex enough to think for themselves," Guardian Pluto then frowned "There were times though I wish that had not been the case. If they did then I could have taken a more active role then I did rather than sleeping for nearly 12,000 years," Guardian Pluto looked wistfully at the relay, "It would have been nice to have another intelligent being to talk to and evaluate your choices."

An image of Juubangia Junior High School appeared an American flag flying from the flag pole. Lilly crossed her arms across her chest, "While the Grandmaster may be a great martial artist I think we need something that would not put the Sailor Senshi in traction."

Genma shrugged and stood, "I imaging the Grandmaster has enough sense to properly pace his students. Besides if the entire past has occurred we could squeeze 10 years of training into a few minutes," At which point Ke Lun and Genma got into a quiet verbal squabble which quickly degenerated into a yelling feast.

Sham Pu stared as the exchange, "What is wrong with Great Grandmother? She is normally totally in control of her emotions."

"I think it has to do with the stress of knowing that in another world her counterpart took actions that made a bad situation worse," commented a familiar voice. Everybody turned to see the figure of General Hitler shaking his head, "Genma and Ku Lun, sometimes you are so eager to climb the mountain you don't know when you have reached the summit. The SDR timeline has been working on methods for using magic and martial arts since before the Great War. As well as one method you will soon encounter."

Guardian Pluto bowed to the figure, "Sensei, not that I am complaining but..."

"But what am I doing here? After Manfred took you home our Sailor Nemesis probed your world's most likely future and found things to be to put it quite mildly a total mess. You were there when Paradox and Queen Eclipse got into their verbal squabble. Paradox was right in she was our world's Stalin; to stop the Nazis from invading our world we needed her. That doesn't mean I trust her one bit. Thanks to her little stunt with the Millennium Queen we now know that the war in China could grind on for another 35 years without sense without purpose."

Prince Demando put his hand to his chin in thought and turned to the General. "If time can pass differently in your world couldn't we hop over to your history for some training?"

General Hitler burst out laughing, "Nine, Nine. Not to demean your abilities but things are very dangerous in China. The last thing we can risk is the Nazis learning this world also has large magical stores."

"Maxamillian Pegasus and his Shadow Games," frowned Guardian Pluto.

"Maxamillian Pegasus better known to us as Pegasus J. Crawford. Elder Sage's personal senshi in the 1920's and the person who introduced my world to the frightening potential of the Shadow Matches."

"You think they are connected?" asked Ami.

"Pegasus admitted he was not native to my timeline. He also mentioned that his alterations to the old Shadow Games were the result of Saotome Ranma teaching him a better method. With Paradox involved I think it would be hoping too much that those events will not happen. I have seen her handy work with the Disrupter first hand. He has turned his battle with Nazis into a full blood feud with all that implies. Sailor Nemesis says in some of our futures the death toll in China reaches 1 _billion_ when this year becomes our present."

"Kami Sama," muttered Uranus, "Paradox is that ruthless? Especially as it is our fault she even exists," she finished downcast.

General Hitler shook his head the SDR insignia on his lapel catching in the early morning light. "It's not your fault but that of another Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto. You are no more them that I am the Hitler of **this** world. The really frightening thing is our Sailor Nemesis discovered that Queen Serenity's reincarnation spell should have locked the mirror and sword to the souls of Neptune and Uranus. Paradox's timeline diverges in the 20th century. The truth of the matter is as ugly as it is should be obvious."

Everyone stared dumbfounded until Nabiki spoke, "Are you telling use someone messed with Queen Serenity's reincarnation spell for the sole purpose of creating Paradox?!" her voice going up an octave at the end.

"I hope not. By all that is _holy_ I hope not. But, the fact of the matter is that Paradox's timeline itself is the result of time travel meddling. Whoever and why they did it is not important only the result. The danger is that Paradox has a profound effect on a world even if she is not messing around in it on a regular basis. Case in point, thanks to Paradox's actions we became aware of Valkyrie Moon's timeline and one of its futures where the Third Reich continues on in the form of something called Crystal Tokyo ruled by the ruthless Neo-Fuehrer Serenity. We now know that timeline will try to invade ours causing bloodshed without purpose, without reason, without honor," General Hitler sighed, "Chiang Kai-Shek's government is too easily corrupted and Mao will leave millions dead but without a strong ruler China and then all of eastern Asia will tear itself apart in a war that will continue for 35 years. To save the country the League of Nations may have to step in and take it over."

Lilly gripped Ranma's arm in firm determination as General Hitler pulled out a Tao necklace from his pocket. "Light within the darkness, darkness within the light. The world rarely is black and white but rather shades of gray. General Yamoto's view of himself and this Japan were shaped by your counterpart's view which in turn was shaped by the propaganda in his world. Saying that Emperor Hirohito had to be either an active participant or a helpless figurehead is wrong. The truth is likely somewhere between those two extremes."

General Hitler put the necklace back into his pocket. "The reality is our worlds are simply too different but you have the advantage of knowing our future mistakes and hopefully avoiding them," he finished looking at the relay. "Setsuna, I think it is time for me to leave the ki and chakra of this history is making me... uncomfortable."

Setsuna nodded and the image changed. Pausing a moment to pull on the brim of his hat General Hitler walked through the Time Gates. Setsuna then felt a hand on her shoulder. Turning she saw Guardian Pluto with a slightly concerned expression on her face. "I see that I am not the only one having problems dealing with a history of sitting back and watching when I now know I could have changed things for the better. You have swung to the nearly opposite extreme to point of being reckless. Sensei is right. We need to made use of what is available in _this_ history before we start going on some sort of crosstime culture vulture trip."

Ranma scratched his head, "But how _do_ we make use of what we have? I mean do we even have enough information to even know what we have here?"

Guardian Pluto collapsed a little into herself and then smiled, "I imagine someone who has fought a series of different dojos has picked up some of their styles," she said looking right at the Dojo Yaburi who flinched under the gaze. "From the way he has been acting over the last couple of hours he knows that he is way over his head but his honor will not allow him to leave," Guardian Pluto walked over to the Dojo Yaburi and looked him in the eye. "It is one thing to destroy a dojo but why not take on a new challenge; the challenge of _creating_ a dojo?"

The Dojo Yaburi frowned. In a sense the woman was right. He had come here in part in a quest for fame and there was definitely more fame in creating a dojo then trying to continue a now obviously useless endeavor. What he had seen and heard over the last two days had forced him to start taking a long hard look at himself. He looked at his little cart of dojo signs; when he passed into the next world who would really remember him? What had he really achieved? He picked up a sign and sighed. Is this what he left behind in his wake? Broken dreams, shattered souls. "Where do I start?" he asked.

Guardian Pluto smiled "I suspect you as a person exist in General Hitler's history. But given the mentality of that world in 1942 I doubt it is as the Dojo Yaburi. Finding out what you are in that world might give you a direction."

Setsuna concentrated and a new image formed. In it Ranma was sparring with a young girl as he spoke, "So, Evaluator, how did your latest trip go?"

Setsuna concentrated on pulling back to see who that Ranma was talking to. Dojo Yaburi stood as he saw himself dressed in a very stylized gi covered in symbols. "Better than I expected, Sensei-sama. Only one dojo is going to need refining of its style," The man paused, "I have heard we are in contact with an interesting variant of your birth world."

"Interesting," laughed the girl as she dodged a series of rapid blows, "Well that is one way to describe it. A world where Pai/Parvati is great grandfather's sister rather than his wife. I wonder who will be your counterpart's wife in that world."

"Have no idea. From what I picked up from Setsuna several of the problems I had don't exist there."

"You mean like my namesake no longer being an uberbitch?" laughed the girl as she jumped over Ranma and kicked him in the face.

Ranma smiled rubbing his chin "Come on, your namesake wasn't _that_ bad, Akane. By the way good move great-granddaughter. How were you able to do that?"

"You have a habit of lowering you left arm slightly when you go for a particular move that leaves you open to that counterattack," the girl said smiling. "As for Tendo Akane being that bad we all know how much you both tone down."

Ranma held up his hand signaling the end of the match. "I'll have to watch that in the future. Can't be teaching any of my students that flaw," he said as everybody laughed.

Setsuna folded her arms as the image froze. "The Dojo Evaluator. Trained by Saotome Ranma himself. Goes around observing and challenging dojos so as to spot any potential flaws in their styles. Reports his observations to back to Ranma who would go over them with the Grandmaster, then the Dojo Evaluator returns to confirm any potential flaws, one year later Saotome Ranma himself could come to see if the flaws were fixed."

Dojo Yaburi shook his head, "If the skill I have seen here is any indication any dojo in Hiroshima or Nagasaki would chew me up and spit me out all over the place."

Setsuna frowned, "Only in the second stage of the Evaluation as it is called. In the first stage you would simply observe. A perfect excuse to go to the local Universities and get every reference you can on the relevant schools. Both here and on Sazan."

Genma's eyes widened a bit. "You mean Oppenheimer Retributive Strike was powerful enough to break across the barrier between worlds?" he asked fearfully.

Setsuna stared at Genma and then broke out into a laugh, "Good heavens no. When it was found out that Sazan was very sparely populated the cities planners used Sazan to build more extensive universities and hospitals. Eventually both cities expanded to where they exist both on Earth and Sazan. Given both cities have been running more or less smoothly I would say those areas of Sazan have likely been changed as well."

"And what am I am going to tell them?" asked Dojo Yaburi.

"The truth. That you want to become the Dojo Evaluator but given the nature of this history all of you need to refine the schools to deal with a Japan whose martial arts training is...not all that good."

"That I gather is a polite way of saying pathetic," said Ranma. "Hey sis, hard as this may sound we happen to be included in that assessment. I mean we are just clobbering together the Sanjiyan Unkara Ganso Musabetsu Kakuto Ryu and yet there are people in Hiroshima and Nagasaki who have the knowledge and skill of a version that has been refined and improved for over 40 years."

Akane smiled a little, "One more thing you have over your counterpart in that world we were in. You will admit to someone being more skilled than you are."

Ranma chuckled tapping his head, "Of course, I have someone who will always be better that I am in martial arts. But I finally figured out something; I will always be better than Ranko when it comes to Sanjiyan Gesture Magic. We each have our strengths and weakness because of who and _what_ we are. But that doesn't mean that we can't keep improving. It just takes time."

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Black Lady, Queen Eclipse, and Ikuko all blinked their eyes in disbelief while Luna was getting a serious sweatdrop while Serenity was busy taking every minute available to figure out just what in the blazes had happened. Usagi was standing with her fist extended with the out cold form of Neo-Queen Serenity sprawled out before her on the floor. "I have totally had it with the Moon Kingdom and Destiny. It is bad enough that my previous life there has totally screwed up any change at having a normal life and I've got the personality of my previous life rattling around in my head but when my own future self comes back and says that we need our minds cleaned as if they were something akin to dirty laundry that is where I draw the line," Usagi said lowering her fist.

"Usagi..," started Luna uncertainly.

Usagi gave the moon cat a piecing stare, "What now Luna? I am not exactly in a good mood, right now. I just found out that Neo-Queen Serenity is just as much an egotistical control freak as Kaiyanwang Paradox is," Usagi turned her attention to Eclipse. "What kept _you_ from turning out like them?" asked Usagi tears rolling down her face.

Eclipse considered the question. "The best explanation I have is that Paradox forced me to realize that good and evil are largely defined by culture and experience and one really needs the other to exist. In reading about other examples of Utopias I realized that they either had a dark side like Plato's Republic or required one to ignore certain aspects of human behavior to work. For example, Smith and Marx respectively ignored greed and sloth. Both Neo-Queen Serenity and Kaiyanwang Paradox have done their best to create Utopian governments, a doomed project from the start. Neo-Queen Serenity uses methods that would make the most control happy dictator drool with envy while Kaiyanwang Paradox does her best to allow her subjects to fulfill their every need. There are like reflections of each other; one exerting too much control the other too little. The daily challenge I face is balancing individual needs with those of the Democratic Republic I live in," Eclipse frowned gesturing to the form on the floor "Speaking of challenges we are going to have a real fun one when Neo-Queen Simpleton wakes back up. That is assuming her overly protective honor guard doesn't show up before then."

Usagi scowled, "No, Serenity, I am not going to start wailing like a two month old baby again. While were on it, I have a serious issue with you. How is taking over my body against my will any better than what Neo-Queen Serenity is doing to her people in her time?" Usagi' expression turned to one of shock. "Serenity, I'm sorry I didn't mean it like that," Usagi rubbed her head, "I guess the stress of all this is finally getting to me.'

Black Lady smiled and then chuckled, "That's all right. Mother means well but there are times when she really doesn't think about the long terms effects of her actions," Black Lady then got serious, "We should at least put her on the couch rather than leave her sprawled out on the floor. Given the punch you gave her I would say she will be touring La La Land for a while," Black Lady said as she got up from the table.

"You have a point," Usagi grumbled as Black Lady walked over, "Ok, let's pick her up and get her to the couch."

A moment later. "Phoo. I'm heavy in the future. Well she is snoring, which means if she still has my old sleeping habits it will be a while before she wakes back up," Usagi said straightening up the sleeping Queen.

"Given how well Crystal Tokyo ran in the past you're right. There were days where she could and did sleep till noon."

"Well in the here and now that is not an option for either of us tomorrow as we have to go to school," Usagi commented.

"At least I convinced mother that given your apparent age you should be in my grade level. Besides you would have looked ridiculous in a class of your actual age. Come on, I imagine mom wants to have a talk with me about loosing my temper and flooring the time traveling simpleton."

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Ranma, his family, and friends were all having a lively talk as they stepped on grounds of Furinkan when a voice called out "Aloha, The Big Kahuna see you not have the special coconut. That mean the Big Kahuna..," **whamm**. Kuno shook his head, "I would have thought that even you would not be so foolish to try and cut the hair of kami, father."

"You're related to this?" Parvati asked Kuno as she handed Ukyo her battle spatula back. "My sympathies."

Setsuna looked over the twitching human pancake "We can't leave the Big Hawaiian Nut out here. Ranma why don't you take him to your homeroom? When Hina-chan-sensei asks you why he is out cold just say Parvati got tired of him behaving like a delinquent," Setsuna smiled as the rest of the group picked up the Principal and carried him off. Walking to her room and sitting down at her desk Setsuna nodded to her students. Finally the tardy bell rang and Setsuna began teaching her class the history of the Japan Hiroshima and Nagasaki belonged to.

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	23. Chap 23 Light, Darkness, and Shadows

Chap 23 Light, Darkness, and Shadows

Ranma 1/2 is the creation of Rumiko Takahashi, 3x3 eyes (Sazan Eyes) is the creation of Yuzo Takada, Sailor Moon is the creation of Naoko Takeuchi. There are also a few other characters from other anime. All are used without permission. This fan-fiction isn't intended for commercial use but is rather a tribute to Ranma 1/2, 3x3 Eyes, and Sailor Moon.

In Hiroshima a man ran through the streets looking for a dimly remembered house. Stopping in front of a particular house he nervously knocked on the door. He immediately recognized the women who opened the door. He introduced himself and then hugged her crying tears of joy. Keiji Nakazawa the author of Barefoot Gen then thanked whatever forces had given him back the family he lost to the atomic bomb some 40 years before.

In another part of the city three students were preparing for a field trip. "Ryoko, you think we will be able to function in that Tokyo?" asked Eric.

"I'm not sure, but being able to actually study a variant of Sensei-sama's Japan is worth any complications," commented Ryoko her black wings twitching with excitement.

"Besides," stated Sakura amusement in her three eyes," Principal Mordrid would have never agreed to the field trip if he thought that we were not able to handle whatever might be there."

"I guess I am just not use to the idea that somehow we been transported to another history and the people best equipped to help are not here," said Eric as he put food packets into his backpack. "Any idea where were will start?"

" Furinkan High School, where else. If we hurry we just might get there in time for lunch," said Sakura.

---------------------------------

Ranma grumbled as he got up from his seat. "Crazy Principal having us move from classroom to classroom," Kuno simply shrugged as he collected his books. As they walked to the next class Kuno happened to look outside and stopped his face showing great concern.

"Ranma, either the Blue Thunder's father has gone totally around the bend or we're not in our history anymore," Kuno said fearfully.

Ranma frowned and followed Kuno's gaze and nearly dropped his books at what he saw. Fluttering in the breeze from the flag pole was an American flag. "Good thing Setsuna's history class is next because she is likely the only one who can tell us for sure," Ranma said breaking into a run with Kuno right behind.

Setsuna looked up from her papers and saw Ranma run into her classroom and smiled, "I can guess your concern, Ranma. No we are not in another history. It seems the Big Kahuna wants to turn this school into a little piece of Hawaii but all he had was a US flag; the Hawaii state flag should show up by the end of the week."

Ranma sighed in relief and then focused his eyes on the political map behind Setsuna. "Setsuna, Pops may have not kept my schooling up to speed but I did learn enough to know that map behind you is wrong."

Setsuna sighed, "Wrong for this history but totally right for the history Hiroshima and Nagasaki were copied from."

Ranma critically studied the map. The Western Hemisphere was as he much remembered it but instead of many colors in Europe there was one solid mass stretching from Spain in the west to the Sea of Japan in the east and where China should have been there was a mishmash of color that made one of the Big Kahuna's Hawaiian shirts look like a good fashion statement. "So exactly why is that map here?"

"Seems the self proclaimed General Yamato wants this Japan to understand the Japan of the SDK timeline and he thinks knowing its history is a good place to start," Setsuna said pulling out a neatly folded letter and handing it to Ranma. "I imagine that eventually every history teacher its going to get something like this letter and I imagine some of them are not going to be happy."

Ranma frowned reading the letter and then handed it Kuno, "I can see part of the logic behind the idea but I sense there is something deeper here."

Setsuna nodded grimly, "General Hitler was right in the fact that history itself is used as propaganda. The leaders of countries are generally portrayed as either total saints, geniuses, idiots, or devils; it only been recently that some of them have been portrayed as what they truly were: human beings with a mixture of light and darkness, insight and stupidity," Setsuna shifted nervously, "Take the Hitler of this world for example. Yes he was a genocidal megalomaniac with delusions of godhood responsible of the slaughter of millions but he also took a political fragmented mess of a bankrupt nation and within a few years turned it into a powerhouse only a few steps from global domination."

"That had to de destroyed at a huge cost," said Kuno in a far away voice. "Not only in terms of men but in terms of culture. Neither we nor from what I heard Germany really want to address what we did in WWII," Kuno looked at Setsuna his face grim, "Regardless of how and why it happened recent changes have given Emperor Hirohito the perfect mask through which he can honorably address the mistakes made in the past."

"It's even deeper than that," Setsuna steepled her fingers and leaned back in her chair "Emperor Hirohito has been given access to an entire world with a map detailing where many of the resources are. In addition not only does he have treaties showing him how best to negotiate with the residents of Sazan but he has a military base that can be used as a foothold in that world."

"Or carve out a military empire with?" commented Ranma frowning, "Ranko, this is Emperor Hirohito we're talking about not Prime Minister Tojo."

Setsuna smiled wryly "Ranko does have a point. That fear especially in Asia is going to make Japanese control of Sazan access a political headache. Complicating matters is the fact that US Purple Base Tsunami is operating as if the Granmaster's history was this world's history. Never mind the fact that General Yamato was the US commander of the Asia Theater in that another world is not going to go down well at all in many parts of Asia."

"Great, can things get any more confusing?" asked Ranma.

Setsuna cocked her head to the side "I don't know about confusing but they may have just gotten more complicated. Excuse me," Setsuna said as she got up, ran to the open window, and spreading her wings jumped out.

---------------------------------

Neo-Queen Serenity was totally confused. What had been a simple matter of going back and freeing her daughter from the evil influence of the Black Moon Family had turned into the equivalent of a journey into the Twilight Zone with a 1960s hippy on LSD as a guide. In short not much of anything made sense. First off there had been two versions of her at the dinner table and she had barely stated that she would cleanse them all of evil before one of them got up and punched her in the chin. Then when she woke back up she got a tongue lashing from all of them finding out they thought she was either some sort of egotistical monster or a naive nincompoop and that the Moon Kingdom had not been what she had told. Third she then found out that the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki had been turned into the equivalent of Demon Central and nobody seemed the least bit worried. And finally to top it all off she discovered that there was some sort of evil version of herself named Kaiyanwang Paradox running amok.

The past didn't agree with her memories of it and the Sailor Pluto of her own time was missing so she was on her own in figuring out just what was going on. That said there were several bright spots to be found. Mistress 9 had been removed from Hotaru, majority crippling Pharaoh 90's efforts at bring the Silence to this world. The Outers now knew exactly where the three items that made up the Holy Grail were and had an alternative item known as the Ningen No Zou to use, decreasing the friction they had had with the Inners. The Senshi were getting training on how to work as a team as well as non-magical attacks and her daughter was forming a strong bond with her younger self.

Neo-Queen Serenity frowned at the last thought. True Black Lady as her daughter now called herself liked Usagi but it was clear from her tone and glare Neo-Queen Serenity was still on her who I can't stand list. Trying to say that she was simply a future version of Usagi didn't help as Queen Eclipse pointed out that was also true of herself and the Kaiyanwang Paradox nutcase. Neo-Queen Serenity decided that the best thing to do was to go to the school where the Senshi's sensei Saotome Ranma was and see if the sensei of the Sailor Senshi could help her as well.

Arriving at Furinkan High School Neo-Queen Serenity again frowned as she noticed that in place of the Japanese flag was an US flag. "Wonderful, Neo-Queen Serenity, just who I don't need," said a voice above her. Looking up Neo-Queen Serenity saw a demoness wearing Sailor Pluto's face and speaking in Sailor Pluto's voice. The demoness landed in front of her frowning. "Let us get this straight from the beginning, I neither _want_ or _need_ my evil removed. And if you ever try I _will_ put you in a full body cast."

Neo-Queen Serenity backed up a little at the hostility in the demoness' voice. "Sailor Pluto?" she asked.

"Do not _ever_ call me that," the demoness hissed her voice full of anger and her eyes glowing a bright red. "If you want to be overly formal Meiou-Sensei or Setsuna the Time Guardian will do but _not_ my old title of Sailor Pluto. Understand?"

Neo-Queen Serenity simply nodded too stunned at the venom in Setsuna's voice to speak. Setsuna closed her eyes and seemed to compose herself. Setsuna then opened her eyes. They were no longer glowing red but they were still filled with anger. "Guardian Pluto and I felt your arrival and figured your meeting with your daughter Black Lady would blew up in your face," Setsuna then smiled showing her fangs, "We also figured you would then go looking for the Sailor Pluto of this time to try and help."

"Actually I came her looking for one of the people training the Sailor Senshi, Saotome Ranma," said Neo-Queen Serenity in a voice sounding much like the one she had when she was called Usagi.

Setsuna blinked in surprise. She had thought that Neo-Queen Serenity was so set in her thinking that even considering that she had been wrong in her cleansing would not occur. Setsuna narrowed her eyes, "What about cleansing the evil in everyone? What happened to that brilliant dumb idea?"

Neo-Queen Serenity blanched, "Perhaps I was mistaken."

Setsuna scowled at the time traveling Queen of Crystal Tokyo, "Well that is a start. Ranma is in my class and I have to get back there to teach. Do try to keep from causing more problems, will you," said Setsuna crisply as she spread her wings. Suddenly she frowned and looked at a particular part of the school grounds "Now what?"

Following her gaze Neo-Queen Serenity saw what looked like the Time Gates forming but composed of energy and magic, "What is that?"

"A crude attempt at creating the relay I use to access to Time Gates from here. It feels like this is being done by another version of me," Setsuna said as battle sounds started emanating from the Gates.

Suddenly bedraggled versions of Uranus and Neptune exited from the Gate each carrying a person. The woman Uranus was carrying looked like Queen Beryl while Neptune was carrying a figure dressed all in black. Setsuna narrowed her eyes at the silver mask the man wore, "Disruptor? Oh crap that means...," Setsuna stopped in mid-sentence as a woman dressed as a Sailor Senshi also existed the Gate. Her hair was red, her costume was jet black, her face covered by a gold mask, on her back she had a huge backpack, and in her hand was the Silent Glaive.

"Captain Wilson, Choukai we're through. Get on this side so as to give me enough time to figure out how to close this thing," yelled the Sailor Senshi.

"All right, Sailor Nemesis. Don't you fascist morons get it? I am Captain Samuel Benares Wilson the living embodiment of America. As long as freedom beats in the hearts of people I can never die," came a voice from the Gates followed by several huge explosions and two men. Setsuna took a sharp intake of breath as she recognized the two men as Benares and Choukai. Benares was dressed in a WWII US Sergeant's uniform carrying a WWII era Thompson machine gun while Choukai was dressed in his all black outfit that in some respect made him look like a cliché of a spy.

That _any_ version of Benares was here was enough to concern Setsuna but the fact this one was carrying a Thompson really worried her. Setsuna then stiffened as Benares pulled out a hand grenade and pulling the pin chucked the thing through the Time Gates from which another explosion was heard along with some screaming. 'Great not only is he carrying a lot of weapons but he doesn't seem to be afraid to use them.' thought Setsuna as she tried to figure out how to deal with a person that was unkillable and by extension nearly unstoppable.

"I can't believe that we let our selves get cornered like that. If you didn't have this little trick we would all be in trouble, Nemesis," said Captain Wilson.

"Well if I can't figure out how to close this thing we may still have a problem," said Nemesis.

Neptune looked up and paled "Dear Kami-sama. Nemesis, we can't let the Valkyrie Warriors though and invade the US!"

"Neptune as I tried to explain before we came through this is not our history and this is part of the plan," said Nemesis her attention on the Time Gates relay.

"But there is something wrong," said the Disrupter, "That flag only has 50 stars not 52 like it is supposed to."

The statement was enough for both Nemesis and Captain Benares to slightly turn their attention from the Time Gate relay "What the Devil?" **KAROOM** Nemesis and Captain Benares were both thrown to the pole by the force of the explosion. Setsuna inwardly groaned at what she saw next. Led by Valkyrie Moon were cross timeline versions of the Inners dressed in Wagner inspired costumes.

"It's over Disrupter. Your little resistance cell and its fight against the Third Reich comes to an end today," proclaimed Valkyrie Moon.

"Wrong, Nazi. It is your evil that comes to an end today, right Grandmaster?" asked a voice similar to Valkyrie Moon's.

Setsuna jerked her head in the direction of the voice and realized that things had just gone from bad to horrid. Dressed in standard school uniforms were another set of Inners variants and behind them was Grandmaster Hitler. Setsuna could feel the blood rush from her face and a cold chill go down her spine as she realized that in about a minute the Furinkan High School grounds were going to be ground zero for a full scale battle and there was not much if anything she could do to contain much less stop it.

Valkyrie Jupiter narrowed her eyes, "Is that the twisted version of our Fuhrer you told us about?" to which Valkyrie Moon nodded her head.

"Twisted? It is your world's version of me that is twisted you subhuman Fascist maniac," said Grandmaster his voice filled with anger.

Neptune blinked and then narrowed her eyes at the Grandmaster, "Just what are you?"

"A step sideways and forward in time," said the Grandmaster his voice cold and harsh. He hand rubbed a torque around his neck, "Axe of Darkness," said the counterpart to Valkyrie Moon and an axe as black as night appeared in her hand. "Valkyrie Moon as that flag flying from that flag pole should show you this is no more your world than it is mine. My advice is to go home."

Valkyrie Moon scowled, "Just what kind of pathetic version of our Fuhrer are you that you would even make such a suggestion?"

The Grandmaster simply smiled wryly, "Against the magic of the true Aryan Race you are totally outclassed. All fighting us will result in is a quick trip to Valhalla."

"You and this twisted reality will be subjected to the cleansing might of the Third Reich!" exclaimed Valkyrie Moon.

Grandmaster shook his head, "This is not some martial arts battle but a war and the painful fact is people die in wars. It is one thing to have Crystal Tokyo formed by an idealistic nincompoop; it is another to have it founded and ruled by the likes of you. I know that in one future you will be a vicious powercrazed meglomaniac who thinks nothing of killing 100,000 people in her efforts to kill Sailor Nemesis," Grandmaster then smiled his eyes glinting. "Tsukino Usagi and her friends are my latest group of pupils. Show the subhuman Nazis some of your moves, my dear."

"Yes, sensei," suddenly Usagi's clothes changed into the robes of the Millennium Queen and then she was standing beside Valkyrie Mars the axe at the end of a swing.

Valkyrie Mars tried to speak but nothing but blood came out of her mouth. Then her head fell off and the headless corpse fell to the ground. "Your world has twisted you into subhuman trash. We're doing everyone a favor by putting you out of their misery. Now who wants to die next?" Millennium Queen asked smiling.

Queen Serenity backed up in horror, "Usagi, leave something for us." said a girl as she charged Valkyrie Venus changing into something looking like a harpy until she finished with one of her talons buried deep into the girl's chest. Valkyrie Venus then made a strangled gurgling noise as the talon came back out with something in it, "You should thank me. Now you really are a heartless bitch."

The Millennium Queen giggled, "Minako, you have a better way with words than I do."

"Your world has warped you and your counterparts into the human equivalent of mad dogs. And there is only one thing to be done with a mad dog!" yelled Grandmaster glowing a blight blue, "Moko Takabisha!" finished Grandmaster blowing a hole in Valkyrie Mercury killing her instantly. "You are running out of playmates, Valkyrie Moon."

"If she has all my powers she can bring them back from the dead," whispered Queen Serenity.

"So that is why no matter how lethal an attack we hit them with these Nazi bitches kept coming back," growled the Disrupter as he struggled to stand.

---------------------------------

Elder Ke Lun had felt mammoth amounts of Qi and had hopped over to see what was going on. She arrived just in time to see Grandmaster yell "Kachu Tenshin Amaguriken Happo Tsurisen Gaeshi revision!" and fire off small objects like a human machine gun tearing one of the two figures in front of him to ribbons. Noticing a movement to the side she saw the Disrupter struggle to stand alternate versions of Neptune and Uranus beside him. "Nemesis, Hiroshima Gambit now!"

Nodding a woman who reminded Ke Lu of both Ranko and Setsuna gestured at the Time Gates which flicked. The Disrupter than turned to his companions "If this works the Valkyrie Warriors will be destroyed one and for all and our allies Beryl and Black Lady will quickly bring the Third Reich to an end. Whatever you do none of you follow me. Understand?"

As seeing his two companions nod the Disrupter charged the remaining figure sending both of them into the Time Gates. Through the Time Gates they saw the two figures locked grappling with each other, "It is over Disrupter. As they say cut off the head the body dies," laughed Valkyrie Moon as she grabbed the Disrupter while his hand was at her neck. "But don't think you will die easily. The Third Reich will make a fitting example of you."

The Disrupter laughed and removed his mask revealing his face. "If you had looked at my Ki you would have known I was not long for this world. Paradox told us of her history and _this_ place and time. Nemesis and I agreed that if I ever got mortally wounded in a battle with you I would lead your here. Welcome to Ground Zero in Hiroshima of Paradox's history August 6, 1945; when you see the brilliant flash the time will be exactly 8:15 AM. My only regret is I will not be there when your Third Reich comes crashing down," At which point the image in the Time Gate went white followed by the relay sparking and then going dead.

The red head woman screamed "Disrupter!" lunging toward the relay only to restrained by her history's Neptune and Uranus.

"I'm sorry, Queen Beryl, he's gone," said Neptune as she wiped a tear from her eye.

"What in the name of heaven was that?" asked Choukai a ward fluttering in the breeze while Benares let his 40 year out of date gun hang limply at his side.

"Givvven the timmmme and placcce I would say that wasss the birrrth of the Atommmic Age," purred the Millennium Queen as she licked the blood dripping from the axe she held. Ke Lun realized that the girl was deep in the Neko-Ken but in control of her actions.

Grandmaster stared at the Time Gates and then shook his head. "I knew someday that it would come down to this. At least he took that bitch with him," Grandmaster then turned he attention toward a woman dressed as a queen. "I trust you I can reason with. Or are you nothing more than another powercrazy egomaniac as well, Neo-Queen Serenity?"

Neo-Queen Serenity glared at Grandmaster Hitler, "That was brutal and senseless slaughter."

Grandmaster chuckled, "Ah, I see, you are an idealistic nincompoop. Welcome to a _real_ battle in a _real_ war. There is no glory here but rather plenty of gore. But compared to what I have seen in China and Africa this was a Sunday School outing," Grandmaster then scowled as he gestured to the carnage around him, "This is the brutal reality of war and against someone as fanatical as the Valkyrie Warriors there is only one rule: kill or be killed. You do what needs to be done and just hope enough gets done before you get the 1000 yard stare."

"They could have been reasoned with."

"Reasoned with?" asked SDR Minako, "They were Nazis!"

"Carrreful, Minako. Not all Nazzzis were evil."

"She is right," said Grandmaster, "A few started breaking away once they saw the Final Solution and there were soldiers on the frontlines who did not really know what they were fighting for. That is why such care was taken at Pearl Harbor to keep loss of life to a minimum. Those pilots did not know they were fighting for a crazed modern day Shogun and not the Emperor."

"Enough with the history lesson of your world, Grandmaster," snapped the weeping Queen Beryl, "Nemesis, why did he do it? We were finally going to win against both our enemies. I had just become his wife. Why?"

"His spell of protection prevented him from being made a Wu and he was weak when we went through the portal," said Nemesis quietly, "The battle ended any chance of saving him so he wanted to make sure his death meant something. He pulled Warrior Moon into the ultimate death trap--ground zero of a nuclear explosion. They both were vaporized in a split second; I doubt he felt any pain."

"At least his line like his dream will live on," said Queen Beryl touching her stomach.

Grandmaster Hitler walked over to the grieving woman and knelt, "You are not alone. Even if in your world some of us were or are monsters," he said solemnly.

It was quickly decided that the visitors would stay on the school grounds and explain this situation to the authorities. After a few moments Grandmaster Hitler turned to Ke Lun and asked, "You are wondering how General Hitler became me, right Elder Ke Lun?"

"From what I have heard I can hazard a guess. You are not someone I would want to be my enemy Grandmaster but..."

"You worry if I am becoming like what I was in this world? No that will never happen," growled Grandmaster, "But I am the otherside of Saotome Ranma's teachings. As General Hitler I represented Ranma's desire to overcome any challenge but 10 years of continual frustration in Asia and Valkyrie Moon's timeline made me the Grandmaster. I struggle with the inner darkness that made me der Fuhrer in this world everyday," Grandmaster Hitler got a far away look in his eyes. "And there are times when I worry more for my pupils than for myself. I may be leaving behind a legacy no one can control, not even my sensei."

Ke Lun nodded. There was no doubt in her mind that Grandmaster Hitler and therefore General Hitler were fanatics. However due to changing events Grandmaster had embraced the win at any cost mentality of the Ganso Musabetsu Kakuto Ryu and that if events went the wrong way here Ranma and his family could wind up her tribe's enemies. As far as Choukai and Captain Benares were concerned they were top operatives for the US government assigned to throw as many monkey wrenches into the Nazi war machine as they could. The only Kaiyanwang they seemed to have ever heard of was Paradox which given the divergence made no sense. Then there was the fact that only memories Uranus and Neptune had of the Moon Kingdom were negative ones; they even believed that the Third Reich was a stepping stone to Crystal Tokyo. Similarly Queen Beryl and her allies memories were also distorted.

Then there was Sailor Nemesis herself. The woman was a total contradiction. First there was the fact that from what Ke Lun knew of the Moon Kingdom there should be no Sailor Senshi for the planet Nemesis. From their conversations Ke Lun had learned that Sailor Nemesis had replaced Sailor Pluto in 1934 when the former had been drowned by a Nazi (which given Pluto's power in of itself made no sense) but while Nemesis had brought up the Time Gates relay she carried the Silent Glaive. But Sailor Saturn had been selected by Queen Serenity to be reincarnated in the 1970's not the 1930's never mind that Sailor Nemesis indicated that had been born _after_ 1934. So who was behind that mask? Ke Lun had no idea. Ke Lun then noticed that Sailor Nemesis turned her attention to an open window of Ranma's classroom and jumped up to it.

---------------------------------

Meanwhile things had basically gone from bad to worse in Ranma's history class. Given the hostility everyone one had showed Neo-Queen Serenity, Setsuna had brought the woman into her class as a show and tell exhibit. But this did not eliminate the fact that everyone had seen or by now heard of the death of both the Valkyrie Warriors and the Disrupter.

Until now the true ramifications of martial arts had not been understood but the news of the final battle between the Disrupter's allies and the Valkyrie Warriors had driven home the dark side of the Art. What had gone on below was not beautiful or graceful but quick, efficient, and brutal. It had been the Ganso Musabetsu Kakuto Ryu stripped of everything but the most basic rule: win by any means at any cost. But the martial artist had little time to come to grips with their new insight as Hotaru had collapsed into a crying weeping wretch asking how could good defenders be so ruthless and vicious. Akane and Sham Pu quickly tried to console the very distraught and nearly hysterical girl but were somewhat impeded in their efforts by Setsuna. Their teacher may have been a half Sanjiyan Unkara with over 12,000 years under her belt but much of it had been next to the Time Gates in a dreamless sleep and as a result her people skills in situations like this were even worse than Ranma's. That is why after the third attempt at help Akane grabbed an empty desk and with a "SETSUNA NO BAKA!" KOed Setsuna.

Setsuna's show and tell exhibit knelt down and started trying to get Setsuna to wake back up. Given the hostility she had felt from the other time travelers Neo-Queen Serenity refrained from using magic. They may have still been on front grounds waiting for the authorities to arrive but she had no misgivings about how fast they could get to the classroom or what would happen once they got there if she even tried to use her powers.

Neo-Queen Serenity suppressed a shutter as she gently slapped Setsuna's face. She didn't know what frightened her more--the Valkyrie Warriors or the Grandmaster's version of her and her friends; both had been unbelievably brutal in the application of their skills. Worse aside from the short old lady everyone down there _hated_ her and everything that they felt she represented. To Sailor Nemesis and her allies she represented the continuation of a 40 year nightmare while to the Grandmaster and his people she represented the realization of a nightmare his world avoided. Neo-Queen Serenity started crying even as she continued to try and wake up Setsuna.

Setsuna opened her eyes and frowned, "I guess even the new Akane has her limits," Setsuna said as she staggered to her feet. She looked over at Hotaru who had finally calmed down and then at Akane. "I take it by your reaction my social skills need work."

Akane scowled back, "That is putting it mildly. 'Don't worry you get used to people dying in front of you after a couple of centuries?!' That is your idea of helping someone in emotional distress? With that kind of moral compass no wonder Neo-Queen Serenity's Crystal Tokyo turned out as much a mess as it did. Not even Ranma's counterpart said anything near that stupid."

"Though he came close a couple of times," muttered Ranma.

Setsuna staggered back to her chair and sat down. "I told you my mother waited too blasted long to become human. She showed no emotion what so ever and was blunt about everything; so I thought that was the proper way to behave. As bad as Genma was he only taught Ranma to _hide_ his feelings; my mother by contrast taught me to have no feelings about mortals at all. Parvati at least has Pai as a guide while I have no one, no one at all," said Setsuna as she broke down and cried.

"That is not true," came a voice from the open window causing Setsuna to look up.

Turning everyone saw Sailor Nemesis crouching on the sill of the open window. Stepping into the room Nemesis dismissed the Silent Glaive. "You have friends and companions to help you. The fact that you acknowledge that you need help is a step in the right direction."

"Good advice but wouldn't it help her more if she knew who was providing it?" asked an annoyed Ranma.

"Why, my dear Saotome Ranma, don't I know who I am?" asked Sailor Nemesis in nearly accentless English. Ranma frowned as he thought over what Nemesis had said and then his eyes widened, "Given the way Pops taught us it does take a while for things to get through that thick head of ours doesn't it," chuckled Nemesis.

"You're me! Or rather that other timeline's version of me!" exclaimed Ranma.

Nemesis nodded. "Seems Warrior Moon's futureself prevented your friend from being born so I wound up with Sailor Saturn's soul. My trip to Jusenkyo consisted of being brought some 50 years into the past to fall into a pool created when some Nazi officer drowned Sailor Pluto there. Then before I could get my bearings some female demon dressed like a Sailor Sensei zaps me and the Nazi into the middle of a battle between the Grandmaster and a homicidal Fascist version of Neo-Queen Serenity here," Nemesis turned her masked face toward the Neo-Queen Serenity in the room and the tone of her voice got colder, "Compared to that version the two of us fought in 1942 Kaiyanwang Paradox is a nice lady."

Setsuna slowly stood up her face pale as a ghost, "You mean that was the powermad lunatic that killed over 100,000 people that Grandmaster was talking about?"

Nemesis again nodded. Setsuna licked her lips and gestured. The Time Gates relay quickly formed showing a version of Neo-Queen Serenity dressed in a black Nazi uniform who was alternating from blasting the people fighting her and good hunks of the landscape. Ranma narrowed his eyes at the image. "Setsuna, you said that this is like a window. Does it distort the auras of Ki, Chakra, or magic in any manner?"

Setsuna frowned, "No. as far as I know I does not distort auras in any way. Why?"

"Sis are you seeing what I am seeing?" asked Ranma as he stood from his desk.

Parvati frowned and nodded her head moved beside Ranma, "I believe so Ranma. The aura of the Nazi officer is very similar to that Kuan-Yaa Cha-Lieh-Chong combo you used against Mistress 9. Far more complex of course."

Nemesis cocked her head to the side while Setsuna's eyes started getting large in realization. "Mind explaining that?"

"My Kuan-Yaa Cha-Lieh-Chong combo created a creature out of Ki, Chakra, and magic. While it could act independently it was not a real living creature. If the auras Parvati and I are seeing are correct neither was that Nazi officer that drowned the Pluto of your world. If anything he appears to more akin to being a construct of some kind," said Ranma.

"I think you have just provided the final piece to this puzzle," came Grandmaster Hitler's voice from the door. "The one thing that had always bothered us was why Paradox took an interest in the timelines she did and how she knew about them in the first place," he said stepping in the room, "Ever since we found Nemesis' history we have been going over it trying to figure out just where everything when wrong. Instead we kept finding all these little hiccups and when we tried to get more detail on them our Time Gates would start having problems, as if someone was blocking our probes."

"All right, General 'Hiedler', what is the point?" asked Nemesis in an annoyed voice.

"Manufactured. Kami-sama you are implying that Nemesis' timeline was manufactured," said Setsuna is a hushed voice.

"No not manufactured. Manipulated, shaped. Someone used already existing factors and shaped them to their liking. Unfortunately there are so many of these little tweaks and blocks to prevent probing of them there is no way to know what your history would have been without them."

"But why?" asked Neo-Queen Serenity as her counterpart in the image tiara frisbeed a harpy like creature into a building. "She got a quick trip to Valhalla," commented Nemesis.

"No. She merely returned to the Items. But back to the question you posed the answer I am sad to say is obvious. A world where the Nazis nave nearly conquered the world would be the perfect place for someone who need to supply the needs of Creatures of Darkness but does not want to use any more innocents then they have to," commented Grandmaster Hitler as he gazed at his youngerself forming Ki claws and trying to carve up Neo-Fuehrer Serenity.

"That explains that strange comment Yakumo heard about Paradox making the Disrupter's timeline," Setsuna said angrily.

"Somehow I doubt it is that simple. The tweaks and hiccups in Nemesis's timeline are erratic at best hurting the Nazis more often then helping. I have this nagging feeling that Paradox is more show than substance. I think that in her deranged way she is trying to do good but is more or less like her idealist counterpart in that she is stumbling around like a bull in a china shop," said Hitler as he glanced at Neo-Queen Serenity who winced under the gaze.

"And when something blows up in her face she simply finds a way to exploit it," said Akane shaking her head.

"Uh I hate to interrupt but Setsuna could you turn that off?" said Nemesis gesturing with her thumb to the still active Time Gates, "As bad as the carnage is right now it is going to get a lot worst and it looks like about half your class is ill as it is."

"What? Oh sorry. I forgot I still had them active," Setsuna said sheepishly dismissing the relay.

"Now what?" asked Neo-Queen Serenity looking at the ground.

"Well it is obvious that we need a plan of action," said Grandmaster "First off Nemesis now that we know for certain that Paradox had a hand in shaping your world and their twisted version of the Sailor Senshi are worm food it is time to shut down the Third Reich."

"But this is wrong," said Queen Eclipse angrily as she appeared

"How is it wrong?"

"The mission was supposed to end with _Paradox_ doing the suicide run not the Disrupter," Queen Eclipse scowled, "Unless my timeline was simply the latest variant on this little operation."

Nemesis nodded and frowned, "That would fit with what we know about Paradox. It is possible she has several similar but subtly different timelines involved in her meddling."

"That means there is another version of our world out there," scowled the Grandmaster, "one she is still feeding on like a parasite."

"Not just one world but many. I imagine if I looked through the books in Hiroshima and Nagasaki I would find key details off from my timeline." Queen Eclipse frowned, "Was this an early attempt at creating me or something else?"

"Something else," replied a familiar voice.

Everyone turned to face voice's owner, "The Shadow Matches are coming to this world. Things are rapidly escalating out of control on the Nazi world. Your Items are reacting to the Death Camps more intensely than even I expected, General."

"Meaning if they try to help in this world things could go out of control here as well," growled Queen Eclipse, "but that is going to happen anyhow isn't it, Paradox? Pegasus doesn't have the five years of training here that he did in my world."

"Too much ShadowRealm Ki and it will be China all over again."

"You bitch," yelled Queen Eclipse grabbing the figure, "Damn it, Paradox. At least face me yourself and not use one of your blasted golem puppets," fumed Queen Eclipse tossing the figure aside revealing it to be simply a wooden puppet.

"Is there nothing we can do?" asked Grandmaster.

"Here? No, Paradox set things up weeks if not months in advance. Your timeline is not what I thought it was. My knowledge is of limited value and most of it will help this world nor yours."

"Nemesis, I think we better get back down there so the authorities don't think we took off for the tall timber when they arrive," said Grandmaster folding his arms.

"Point made. I'll be glad when this is over so we can start planning," said Nemesis as she hopped out the window.

---------------------------------

Professor Tomoe Souichi scowled. Mistress 9 was gone and the last attempt at getting pure heart crystals had been a total fiasco. He had briefly considered and then dismissed the idea of doing pure heart crystal hunting in Hiroshima or Nagasaki. First there would have been the little problem of him being here and the potential donors being hundreds of miles away. Then there would have been the fact the residences were more than a match to any collector he could summon. Then finally there were the KamiOni Hunters; from what he had read and heard they were like a mixture of devil hunter, martial artist, and Sailor Scout all rolled up in one nice tough little package. It had been bad enough when that Tsukino Usagi girl had effortlessly destroyed his last daimon, he certainly didn't want anybody actually trained in fighting supernatural beings involved especially when odds were that they themselves were supernatural beings. So Professor Tomoe Souichi continued to try to come up with a plan any plan to help his master Pharaoh 90.

Meanwhile Maximilian Pegasus was going over the same information but with very different thoughts in mind. His white hair tended to cover the left side of his face hiding the fact that in place of his left eye was an item of immense magical power. When the events of Hiroshima and Nagasaki came to light Pegasus had a feeling as to what was going on and the historical records he had pored over confirmed it. In that other world the Shadow Games had evolved into something called Shadow Matches. The description of Pegasus J. Crawford matched his own so greatly he felt it could not be a coincidence. Pegasus pulled out a deck of cards and looking at them smiled grimly. The records mentioned the people who had carried the work of Pegasus J. Crawford to the next level and beyond: Saotome Ranma and his wife (or should that be wives) Saotome Pai/Parvati. Yes played just right it could work. He then smugly lifted his drink of red wine and toasted to the future and the return of his wife.

---------------------------------

Ke Lun hopped down the street back to her restaurant glad that the authorities had not decided that she was important enough to hold for a statement. Ke Lun was not too proud to admit the Grandmaster and those girls with him had actually frightened her; their attacks were brutal and savage even by her people's standards. Until she and Sham Pu could modify the Book of Law keeping the Grandmaster as far away from this timeline as possible was a good idea.

Ke Lun knew that while Sham Pu's father was able to keep Mu Si from causing any problems he was not going to be any help in planning a training schedule for her great-granddaughter. Ke Lun chuckled wondering if she should tell Ranma who was one of Sham Pu's great-grandfathers in the SDK timeline and decided to wait. Perhaps when things calmed down a little she could have Setsuna show her the day when Saotome Ran brought his new Nujiezu wife to meet his parents Saotome Ranma and Pai/Parvati. From what she read that encounter had helped Ranma overcome the few remaining resentments he had regarding the Nujiezu. Ke Lun suppressed a shiver at that, only a wild combination of events in this timeline had prevented the Nujiezu from unknowingly playing with a fire that could have consumed them all.

Ke Lun then frowned, while as a whole the Elder Council was not going to go off and do something stupid Ke Lun now knew there were enough narrow minded hidebound idiots to cause problems when they found out that the people of Hiroshima and Nagasaki knew of and used Nujiezu techniques. That was going to be a problem as they still had Pharaoh 90, this timeline's versions of Benares and Choukai, and assorted future challengers of Ranma to contend with.

---------------------------------

Ke Lun would have been more concerned if she had know two of those challengers were about to arrive way ahead of when they had in the other world. One of them was enjoying a massage. "You really should get some added support for your back Ashura-san." said the massage therapist, "It would prevent you from having so many problems."

"Less problems being less pain, right?" asked the three faced woman.

"Right. Now there are plenty of people who specialize in this sort of thing right here in Nagasaki but given the amount of pain you were in I would have recommended going to the Saotome dojo. Sadly since we shifted into some variant of Sensei-sama's world that dojo no longer exists. However I did see Saotome Parvati on TV say something about the _Tendo_ Dojo. Since in our world she is the one who developed the harness and training method to help people with multiple arms this world's version of her might be able to help."

"That sounds good, oh could you go a little lower, please? Oh that feels good. Now tell me how do I get to this Tendo Dojo?"

Meanwhile something that looked like a Minotaur with wings and an eel's tail was wandering around Hiroshima trying to get a clue as to where a certain pervert of a martial artist was. "Sir you look like you are looking for something can I help?" asked a young woman with long green hair and a greenish tone to her skin.

The Minotaur blinked and then tried to explain himself, "Moo."

"You poor thing. What fool of a parent would bless their child but forget to give them the potion of speech is beyond me," said the woman as she pulled out a little vial from a pocket. "Here drink this. It will allow you to speak normally in your blessed form."

The Minotaur took the vial and drank its contents. "Thank you," said the Minotaur in a shaky voice. "Yes I am looking for someone. The moron who baptized me and saddled me with a ridiculous name."

The woman frowned, "It cannot be any worse than my name. I ever get my hands on that small pervert of a martial artist I will do some nonfatal rearrangement of his family jewels," finished the woman making some twisting gestures with her hands.

The Minotaur narrowed its eyes, "This martial artist pervert would not have been named Happosai?"

"You know that pervert?"

"He is the idiot that baptized me in Pool of Drowned Yeti-riding-a-Bull-holding-a-Crane-and-Eel and named me Taro Pantyhose."

"You got off easy. That little pervert named me Tampon Goldentongue. It's bad enough when the ignorant of the world think we dryads have all the morality of an ally cat in heat but to have a family name that is a female hygiene product and a first name... well I won't go into what the first name implies," grimaced the dryad.

"I've been looking for that little jerk for years to get him to change my name. Perhaps you could come along and get your name changed as well," said Taro.

"Nothing would please me more. But given what had happened recently I wouldn't even know where to start looking. The little jerk could still be in the cave Sensei-sama's father and his father's friend sealed him in, at the Tendo Dojo, or somewhere else entirely."

"You mentioned a dojo."

"Yes that is where Sensei-sama learned many of his techniques before being sent back in time and creating my timeline," Goldentongue smiled, "Perhaps that would be the best place to go. In Sensei-sama's autobiography he said the little pervert enjoyed lording over his last two spineless students. If nothing else we get to met Sensei-sama in his formative years; I have always want to find out if he exaggerated just how bad his social skills were."

"So, where exactly is this Tendo Dojo?" asked Toru.

---------------------------------

"What in the world? I thought this was supposed to be a school. It looks more like a war zone," stated Sakura blinking at the damage before her.

"Well Sensei-sama did same some of his fights with P-chan did do a good amount of property damage," said Ryoko, "Except I smell human blood. In fact it smells like several people's blood,"

"Looks like you were right," said Eric pointing some body bags being loaded into a van.

Before any of the three could react the heard the voice of an old man, "What a haul. What a haul," followed by many enraged female voices, "Kill the pervert! Maim him! Castrate him!"

"HEY!" yelled a cop stepping in front of the mob, "This is ..." **trample** "correction was a possible crime scene" finished the trampled mess.

The three friends looked at each other. "Happosai," they said simultaneously. Then Sakura jumped back grabbing at her chest, "GET OFF YOU OLD LECHER."

"You get off my friend you sex crazed maniac," said Ryoko as she formed a deep red battle aura, "I DIDN'T MEAN SO YOU COULD MOLEST ME, YOU PERVERTED JERK!" screamed Ryoko as she grabbed at the little gnomish pervert.

"HAPPOSAI! I don's care what Pendragon says. Molesting me while I am trying to take a bath is where I draw the line. EAT EXCALIBUR, PERVERT!" screamed a woman sporting a red battle aura, a western sword, a scabbard, and some soap suds.

"Excuse me, dear, I have places to go, underwear to collect, and some important parts of my anatomy to keep, bye," said the small pervert as he hopped away.

"Hold still, you little jerk!" screamed the woman as chased after the little gnome.

Eric just stood there blinking his eyes while his friends joined in the chase to kill/maim the pervert, "And the Shinto priests used to think we lust demons were a grave threat to the welfare of woman? They obviously never met someone like Happosai. Of course the idea that a man like Happosai could even exist would have scared nearly any person silly."

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The idea that one of their goddess had taken earthly form and was in Japan both excited and frightened many Hindus. While Nabiki had discovered the belief that Parvati was Siva's wife she had missed a very important fact of Hinduism. Unlike many other polytheistic religions Hinduism held that one kami could change form to perform different roles. The closet thing to that in Western polytheistic beliefs was in Greek mythology where in some stories Apollo became Helios when he rode the sun chariot and Artimis when she became Hectate. But these stories were not integrated into the mythology the way transformations of Hindu kami were. So Nabiki had thought that Hindus believed Siva had four wives: gentle Lady Parvati of the Mountains, blood thirsty Kali whose worship if the British were to be believed spawned the Thuggie cult of ritual stranglers in the 19th century, the traveler waylaying Dweller of the Vindhyad, and the demon slaying Durga. The reality was that these were all different forms of the _same_ Hindu kami, hence the excitement and fear felt by many Hindus. Excitement and fear pretty much summed up the way other people regardless of their religion reacted. Of course there were those who fanned fear into either worship or hate for their own reasons.

On the political side things were in just as much disarray. Just as the discovery of the New World had upset the political climate in Europe nearly 500 years ago the discovery of Sazan was doing much the same to the modern world. However the similarities ended there as unlike the New World in 1492 Sazan had been extensively mapped with volumes of material of where things were and what peoples one would encounter. The intelligence agencies of the world had quickly figured out that their counterparts did not have to go to Japan to access Sazan however the methods that were used did cause religious concerns. As if that was not enough there was the little problem of making the items, learning the spells, and using them in the proper Kunlun location. Adding to the frustration was that many modern Kunlun locations simply didn't exist leaving only the old Kunlun locations many of which were either national treasures (like Stonehedge in the UK or Monk's Mound in the US) or off in some remote nearly impossible to get to place (like Kunlun mountains in China or the Devil's Frontyard in Yellowstone). Right now the only nation that any reasonable number of intact and easily accessible Kunlun locations was England which was why Integra Hellsing was chain smoking on board a private jet with her "daughter' and an MI6 operative heading for Japan thinking 'Soon I am going to wake up and find out this is all a _really_ bad nightmare.'

Thoughts along those lines were shared by a very weary Chinese man as he walked through the streets of Hiroshima. Gone was the continual smirk of self confidence and the spark of control he had once had. The mission given to him so many years ago had been so simple; destroy the Kunlun entrance vessels. That was before this city and Nagasaki had changed. Now nearly every person in the city wore a little Kunlun entrance vessel and you could go into any store and buy one. Benares' goal of controlling access to Sazan was shot to blazes and worse in the world these cities represented his Sanjiyan Ward skills were some 70 years out of date. In an instant Choukai had gone from one of the top masters of the dark arts of Sanjiyan Wards to a relic of a time long passed and the man was not taking it very well. Choukai finally collected his thoughts after aimlessly wandered around Hiroshima for hours and decided the best thing to do was to learn about the martial arts known as the Sanjiyan Unkara Ganso Musabetsu Kakuto Ryu.

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Kasumi smiled her sisters and their friends entered the house. "Ranma, a special delivery package arrived addressed to you, Parvati, and Pai," she said.

"Thank you Kasumi," said Ranma as package to see who it was from, "Maximilian Pegasus, Industrial Illusions," he read aloud frowning, "I wonder who that is?"

Nabiki shook her head, "Only the inventor of Duel Monsters, one of the most popular games around."

Parvati raised her eyebrows at that, "Wonder what he sent us and why," she said as Ranma opened the box. Inside he found a deck of cards, a small booklet, and a note.

Parvati picked up the deck of cards, "What is this?" she said breaking the seal on the cards.

"I've seen those around school; It's known as a dueling deck," said Akane.

"A _dueling_ deck? What does the note say?" asked Parvati a tone of concern in her voice.

Ranma opened the note and read it aloud. "Dear Saotome Ranma, Ranko, Pai, and Parvati, Grandmasters of the Sanjiyan Unkara Ganso Musabetsu Kakuto Ryu. I hope this package finds you well. I imagine you have wondered why I have sent you it. The reason is simple, years ago my wife died and in my emotional pain I wandered the world. In Egypt I was given one of a set of seven items which if collected together and combined with a certain technology could bring my wife back. Connected to these items was a game of incredible power played some 3,000 years ago which I used as the basis for Duel Monsters."

Nabiki eyes widened at that, "He is saying that Duel Monsters is actually 3,000 years old?!"

Parvati gestured to Nabiki to be quiet as Ranma continued to read the letter. "Recently I was told of an alternative method of bringing my wife back but am worried that efforts to learn more may have resulted in the current situation. In the other timeline one of the resources available to stop a threat to Earth known as Pharaoh 90 was access to the ShadowRealm. Given that this threat may endanger _this_ Earth I have personally put together a deck for you complete with instructions on playing the _earthly_ version of the game my down payment. Once you have reasonably mastered this version I will provide you the knowledge to access the ShadowRealm where the monsters and powers of Duel Monsters are real."

Akane paled at that, "You mean there is a place where the monsters and spells in Duel Monsters are real?! Good heavens we are talking about some serious power if they are anything like the cards that represent them."

"Certainly access to a realm of such power and the knowledge of the beings and powers there will be more than enough to make up for any trouble my efforts to bring my wife back have caused you. Your humble servant, Maximilian Pegasus," finished Ranma.

"I think Pegasus may have gone overboard in his efforts about trying to bring his wife back." stated Nabiki nervously, "I mean father simply wants to talk to mother not bring her back. Even we cannot bring back the dead, can we?" she finished looking at Parvati.

Soun looked up from a book on mythology, "There are stories in many mythologies of attempts at returning the dead to the world of the living. Osiris, Balder, Lazurus, and many others. Pegasus may be right in thinking it is within our power to bring back the dead but he is also correct that there is also a price. Such an act is a disruption of the natural order even if it involved a kami."

Parvati smiled, "Your father is right. In theory we can bring back the dead but there are certain limitations. First the soul cannot have reincarnated or gone on to its reward. Second as a martial artist I will not force any being into something they do not want to do, so the second requirement is that the soul be willing to return to an earthly body. That brings up the final point, there needs to be a body to put the soul into."

Ranma frowned looking at his sister, "You are not even considering helping this Maximilian Pegasus, are you?"

"Normally I would not but the man seems to think his efforts have somehow resulted in the current situation we have now. He also mentioned that this ShadowRealm was one of the resources available to fight Pharaoh 90 something Setsuna mentioned. Furthermore Pegasus was the name of the person Queen Eclipse mentioned," said Parvati as she looked through the dueling deck, "When a person handles something they tend to leave some of their Ki on the objects. Pegasus also said in his letter he personally selected the cards in this deck," finished Parvati as she pulled out a card and held it like a summoning ward.

When nothing happened Parvati frowned and put the card face up on the table, "Perhaps I was mis..," she startled when a beam shot out from the card. Now standing in the room was a six foot tall elven female with blond hair and blue skin holding her hands in prayer chanting.

"What in the the world?" asked Neo-Queen Serenity.

"This is what I sensed when I picked up the deck. The Ki of this ShadowRealm was so strong that only adding Ki barely strong enough to a candle created a Ki body for this being to inhabit," commented Parvati.

"I know that you, Ranma, and Hotaru are Wu but the rest of the people here aren't," Neo-Queen Serenity said angrily.

"Neo-Queen Serenity I am surprised. You should know by now that unlike you I have a good idea of what I am doing. Compared to the other creatures in this deck this one looked the least threatening, and I was right," said Parvati with a smirk on her face.

Ranma walked around the chanting elf frowning, "I have learned to trust my sister's instincts when it comes to magic. But my concern is just as several alternative timeline problems leave this now appears. It is just too blasted convenient," he said a tinge of anger in his voice.

Parvati nodded, "Especially with this card in this deck, Axe of Darkness. Which if I remember correctly was what the Millennium Queen called forth. Interestingly these ShadowRealm beings seem to have the same problem as Pharaoh 90's daimons in that their true physical forms cannot exist in this reality their ShadowRealm has so much Ki that they can use it create an alternate physical form which can be triggered and sustained only with the smallest application of this world's Ki."

Genma whistled as he walked over to the chanting elf, "If I understand you correctly these ShadowRealm beings have Ki reserves beyond that of even the Sanjiyan Unkara."

Parvati nodded as Genma looked the chanting elf over, "So does she do anything but chant? While we are on the subject just what _is_ she?" he asked turning his attention back to Parvati.

Parvati looked at the card on the table. "The title on the card is Mystical Elf."

"How may this humble one serve, mistress?" asked a musical voice.

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	24. Chap 24 All in the Cards

Chap 24 It's all in the Cards

Ranma 1/2 is the creation of Rumiko Takahashi, 3x3 eyes (Sazan Eyes) is the creation of Yuzo Takada, Sailor Moon is the creation of Naoko Takeuchi, Yugioh is Kazuki Takahashi. There are also a few other characters from other anime which belong to their respective creators. All are used without permission. This fan-fiction isn't intended for commercial use but is rather a tribute to Ranma 1/2, 3x3 Eyes, and Sailor Moon.

"How may this humble one serve, mistress?" asked a musical voice.

Everyone looked open mouthed at the elf as she simply stood there her hands still held together as if she was praying. What troubled Parvati was the look in the being's now open eyes; while there was eagerness in them there was no spark of self-will. Becoming a martial artist had made the very idea of having any intelligent being as a slave sickening to Parvati; yet here was a being that if her eyes were any guide epitomized the term 'slave mentality'. It was clear to Parvati that without direction the being before her could not reasonably function. Remembering that in his letter Pegasus had referred to them by the titles they had in the SDR world Parvati wondered if he had meant for them to help the poor wretches of this ShadowRealm. If so then if it was within their power and satisfied the requirements she had set down Pegasus would have his wife back.

Steeling herself against the revulsion she felt at commanding however tangentially this intelligent being Parvati spoke, "Genma was wondering if you did anything but stand there and chant. So do you?"

"Yes, Mistress. While my chanting will add my attack power to that of another monster I can also be sacrificed to restore the value of my attack power to the health points of my summoner."

For the first time in a long time Parvati felt sick to her stomach. While a samurai of old would be expected to put his life down for the protection of his lord they at least did it for honor. This being didn't even have that reason; in her eyes she was nothing but a tool for her summoner to use or discard without a moment's notice or any reason. "Ranma, there was a booklet with the deck and letter." said Parvati her voice hushed.

Ranma pulled himself from the pathetic tableau before him and took out the booklet and started to read it. "Duel Monsters is a game between two people where each player starts with up to 8000 life points. There are three types of cards, monsters like our friend here, magic, and traps each of which has various subgroups. The goal of the game is for one player to reduce the other's health points to zero." Ranma leafed through the rest of the little guide, "The booklet goes on to describe the rules and method of play. It looks like you can get into some really complex strategies with this game. The earthly card game would be very helpful in further developing our strategy skills."

"Skills which would be also useful in this ShadowRealm." commented Parvati.

"Yes mistress. However I would recommend extensive practice before entering into your first Shadow Game."

Ranma got concerned as he saw the color drain from his sister Parvati's face, "Did you say Shadow Game?!" she asked in voice full of an emotion that got everyone's attention: fear.

"Yes, Mistress. A game in the ShadowRealm is more properly known as a Shadow Game."

Genma got concerned. Parvati had never showed fear the whole time he had known her and now she looked scared. "What is a Shadow Game and why does it concern you?"

Parvati composed herself and slowly sat down, "My father told me of a powerful game created by the same mortal race who built the Great Pyramid. These Shadow Games could be played for very high stakes with the results of winning or losing be decided beforehand or by the winner afterward. As time went on the stakes and power of these Shadow Games increased until they got out of the control of their creators threatening to destroy not only Earth but Sazan and several other realms as well. As a result these Shadow Games were sealed by one of those mortals' rulers."

Parvati paused looking the deck still in her hand, "According to my father only something not possessed by the loser was out of bounds as payment for winning a Shadow Game. Lives, kingdoms, realms, and even souls were fair game. Until now I had assumed that my father's story was a cautionary allegory about the quest for and potential abuse of power. Now I see it for what is really was, a warning that one day mortals would again engage in the Shadow Games."

Hotaru looked at the elf before her, "But can't the magical beings and girls of the modern world handle these Shadow Games?"

"My father said the most powerful being in a Shadow Game was Exodia. While difficult to summon him it was not impossible and once summoned nothing not even the most powerful Sanjiyan Unkara could defeat him," Parvati narrowed her eyes at the Mystical Elf, "He also said three Sanjiyan Unkara were lost to the Shadow Games."

The Mystical Elf nodded, "Mistress's father was correct. Nothing can defeat Exodia once he is summoned." the elf held out her hand, "If I may, Mistress." curious Parvati gave the deck to the Mystical Elf.

The Mystical Elf laughed as she pulled five cards from the deck laying them on the table, "I thought I sensed him. Mistress is very fortunate to have Exodia."

Parvati's three eyes opened wide as the Mystical Elf handed the deck back to her. Parvati then put carefully put the pieces of Exodia back into the deck and then picked up the Mystical Elf's card. Everyone gasped as the elf disappeared. "What happened to her?" asked Nabiki.

Parvati looked at the card in her hand, "It appears that the summoning only holds as long as the card is face up on a surface." Parvati then frowned and summoned her staff. Opening it she looked at Takuhi and sighed, "Takuhi go to the Juubangia district, find Tsukino Usagi, and tell her we need a meeting ASAP as there is a new threat looming. Sham Pu tell Ke Lun the situation we have here. If the Shadow Games are returning everyone on both Earth and Sazan is in grave danger."

---------------------------------

Tsukino Usagi was having a quiet dinner with her family when Parvarti's Takuhi flew in chirping nervously. Usagi listened intently and frowned, "We need to have a meeting to talk about a new threat?" she asked. The Takuhi chirped again. "You overheard something about the return of something dangerous called the Shadow Games?" she asked to which the Takuhi nodded. Usagi then looked over at Luna questioningly.

Luna shook her head, "I'm sorry, Usagi, I have never heard of these Shadow Games, though the name alone doesn't bode well."

"Neither do the names Black Lady or Queen Eclipse. But we are not out of control power crazed loons while my mother Neo-Queen Serenity would fit that bill quite nicely." said Black Lady which earned her a harsh look from Luna.

"Black Lady, while Neo-Queen Serenity is not on my popularity list especially after trying to cleanse us I would not call her a power crazed loon." said Usagi as she stroked the Takuhi.

"Oh and what term _would_ you use to describe my mother?" asked Black Lady in an annoyed tone.

"Naive, idealist, ditzy nincompoop." replied Usagi causing Luna to wince.

"That does accurately describe the way I use to think." admitted Eclipse chuckling.

"Hopefully Ranma can get some sense into her head." said Black Lady.

Back at the Tendo Dojo Neo-Queen Serenity looked at the deck of cards in Parvati's hand. "In a way this reminds me of our battles with the servants of the Makaiju we had. When we defeated one of their summoned monsters it would turn into a card." she said.

Setsuna frowned, "Those were Tarot cards not Duel Monster cards, but that does remind me of something. When Paradox told those servants to look for the energy of love rather than life energy she called herself the Golden Lord. I wonder why."

"Perhaps she thought to confuse us." said Ranma who then frowned, "But now I think about it that doesn't make sense. Things went too fast for us to be deceived by the Golden Lord reference."

"That reinforces the idea that she is nowhere as powerful as she pretends to be. Otherwise she would have used her current title and not bothered with the false name." commented Genma.

"I have to agree, anything transparent enough for Pops to see through is certainly not the indication of a person of great power." said Ranma which earned him a glare from his father.

Parvati chuckled and starting looking through the deck, "My main concern is Paradox getting her hands on this kind of power. If these cards are any guide there are some really nasty things she could use to cause problems with."

"It is times like this I would like to slap my olderself silly. When I went to enlist Pegasus' help I never dreamed the man had this kind of power. I was hoping he and Soun could help each other and in the process give us an edge on Pharaoh 90."

"It is so wonderful to be informed about these things." said Ranma sarcastically.

Setsuna hung her head, "I had planned to tell you but then my counterpart went off and did something really stupid and we have kind of been busy ever since." Setsuna then brought up her head scowling, "If make you happier my olderself kept me in the dark about this so I know how you feel."

"Given how you originally operated your olderself may have not known anymore than what she told you." commented Ranma, "You know I just realized that we really have not seen Paradox summon _anything_, rather she gives the impression that she summons stuff but is more like a magician using misdirection." said Nabiki.

Parvati nodded, "Perhaps you are right. However just on their own the Shadow Games are worrisome enough and we have a whole bunch of other problems to deal with. All I have are stories my father told me; we need more concrete knowledge about the ShadowRealm and our best bet is Maximilian Pegasus. After all the more knowledge we can get the better." Parvati paused looking at a card, "Who knows given Pluto's knowledge the ShadowRealm may be our key to defeating Paradox."

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The knowledge that in all likelihood his wife would be back soon had resulted in Maximilian Pegasus entertaining dreams much purer and nobler than the ones he had had in the past. They were noble and pure enough that his namesake could hide from the Dead Moon Circus in them. Though he didn't know it the combination of his Millennium Eye and the spirit creature Pegasus now in his dreams made Maximilian Pegasus a prime target for two different groups of people. Though even if he had know it really wouldn't have concerned him as he had other matters on his mind. Mainly the daughter of his late sister whose father he had stopped communicating with when his own wife had died. Pegasus frowned, the grief and desire to have his wife back again had prevented him from establishing a relationship with his only living relative. Pulling out the last letter he had received he decided to go and personally visit his niece.

Just after when school would have let out Pegasus frowned as he got near his destination. The acute senses he had developed from the ShadowRealm told him immediately something was wrong very wrong. Putting on his best smile he knocked on the door. When his brother-in-law opened the door Pegasus bowed slightly "Professor Tomoe I am so sorry that I let my grief overwhelm me to the point that I stopped communicating with you. I finally got myself together and decided to give my niece a surprise visit."

Professor Tomoe frowned, "I wish you had called ahead first. Hotaru is away with some of her other relatives."

Pegasus frowned. Even without his Millennium Eye he could tell the man was lying. "Oh I am so disappointed. I really wanted to surprise her. Perhaps if you could tell me where she is staying." he said activating his Millennium Eye.

Though his Millennium Eye Pegasus heard Professor Tomoe's thoughts, 'Blast it. Why did he have to show up now of all times. First the girl runs away and then Mistress 9 is expelled from her and destroyed. Those Sanjiyan Unkara summoning spells I found are not entirely compatible with my master and if I want to realize Pharaoh 90's goal of bringing the Silence to this world and ending all life on it I need to further study that book. As it is it will likely take weeks to alter the spells to where they will summon rather than destroy Pharaoh 90.' Professor Tomoe wryly smiled, "I'm sorry but these relatives took her on a camping trip so I don't know where they are."

Maximilian Pegasus put on his best smile probing with his Eye a little deeper, "I understand. Just give me a call so I can try again when she is here." He then turned and walked away. 'My Millennium Eye showed him summoning creatures to steal souls as a part of this mad goal. Setsuna was not joking about Pharaoh 90 ending all life on Earth.' Pegasus thought frowning, 'Sanjiyan Unkara. That is what Saotome Ranko and Parvati are. If anyone would know how to stop this madman it would be them. I've got to get to that Tendo Dojo and tell them about this maniac and ask their help in finding my niece.'

---------------------------------

Ke Lun was following her great granddaughter on her staff. That these Shadow Games and the ShadowRealm they involved were powerful enough to worry Parvati was bad enough but to find out beings from this ShadowRealm could be easily summoned from the cards of a popular game was frightening to say the least. When they got to the Tendo Dojo they noticed a tall handsome man in a red business suit walking toward it. Ke Lun noticed the worried expression of the man and out of reflex looked at the man's aura and nearly fell off her staff. The man was a walking Qi storehouse holding more than a third of the best Elders of her tribe put together. Ke Lun frowned, the man didn't move like a martial artist so how on earth did he get such Qi reserves? The man knocked on the door of the house and Kasumi answered it.

"May I help you?" asked Kasumi.

"I hope so. I just found out that my niece's father has gone crazy and is trying to bring something to this world that will kill every living thing on Earth." said the man, "The worst part is he is trying to use Sanjiyan Unkara magic to do it."

"Oh my. Please come in. Parvati, Ranma, we have another problem."

"Like we don't have enough as it is." said Ranma as Ke Lun and Sham Pu followed the man into the house. "Between this ShadowRealm, that time traveling lunatic Paradox, and the Pharaoh 90 maniac who has one of his daimons controlling Hotaru's father..."

"What did you say about Pharaoh 90 and Hotaru?!" exclaimed the man, "That is what I came here about. My niece's name is Hotaru and her father is trying to bring something called Pharaoh 90 to Earth."

"Mind telling who you are and how you know about Pharaoh 90?" asked Parvati in a colder than normal tone.

Maximilian Pegasus frowned resigning himself to revealing one of his most closely guarded secrets, "I am Maximilian Pegasus and as far how I knew the item I told you about in my letter revealed it by allowing me to read Professor Tomoe's thoughts."

Before anyone could respond a Hotaru ran up to Maximilian, "You were able to read my father's mind? Is there anything left of him or has the daimon consumed his soul as Mistress 9 tried to do to mine?"

Maximilian blinked, "Tomoe Hotaru?" he asked and smiled as the girl nodded her head. "I don't know; my Millennium Eye can see into people's thoughts or their souls but it cannot do both at once." he said knelling and looking the smaller girl in the eye, "I was more concerned about finding the niece who in my grief over my wife's death and desire to bring her back I had nearly forgotten than examining her father's soul."

Akane gulped and asked nervously, "And what does your Millennium Eye say about Hotaru's soul?"

Maximilian frowned and focused his Eye on his niece, "Her soul... Why is my niece's soul incomplete?" he asked in tense voice turning toward the others in the room.

Akane closed her eyes, "The missing part is merged with mine."

"What?!" asked Maximilian doing the best to keep his temper in check as he stood. Before he could form any kind of thought or response he felt a small hand on his side.

"Uncle, please. It's all right." Hotaru said softly, "When they discovered Mistress 9 consuming my soul the only way they knew to stop it was for me to become a Wu. Ranko warned me what I was getting into and Akane asked me if I was sure. I told her I would rather be a Wu than let that thing take my body over. That is how I became Akane's Wu."

A green haired woman chucked softly from the couch she was sitting in, "It's kind of ironic because in a pervious life Hotaru was the Wu of my mother. When my mother became human she manufactured records showing that Hotaru was supposedly the latest Sailor Saturn. Unfortunately neither of you had much remaining in the way of social skills when it came to dealing with mortals. Compared to your previous life Parvati here was an emotional neon sign."

"Setsuna, was I really that bad?" asked a worried Hotaru.

Setsuna nodded sadly, "The Outers as a group were into acceptable losses but you and my mother were the worst of the lot. My mother taught me to look at everyone as pieces in what I now realize was some kind of sick cosmic chess game and your past self would think nothing of killing a few thousand people to stop a threat. That is why Uranus and Neptune reacted the way they did when they first saw you; restraint was _not_ one of your previous incarnation's strongest points."

Setsuna chuckled wryly, "In a way reincarnation has given you a second chance. I on the other hand am left trying to learn skills that I missed out during my childhood. Even you have that advantage over me there, Ke Lun."

The small woman sitting on the staff nodded, "Yes. I believe you said there was a new danger involving something called the Shadow Games."

Parvati nodded grimly, "Perhaps it is best to show the problem to all of you. On a side note as long as two requirements are met we will do the best to bring back your wife, Pegasus-san."

"And what are those two requirements?" asked Maximilian.

"Your wife's soul has not reincarnated and is willing to return to an earthly body."

Maximilian laughed, "The first thing I saw when I was granted my Millennium Eye was my wife's soul. Sadly it does not have the power to give her a body and that was the reason for my quest of the other Millennium Items. Since I can still communicate with her I know that she has not reincarnated and she has agreed that if possible she would return to an earthly body."

"Soun is trying to communicate with his late wife perhaps you can help." said Parvati as she pulled a card out of the dueling deck and set it face up on the table, "Akane, would you do the honors."

Akane thought about the perverted boys who had treated her like some sort of trophy causing her red battle aura to flare into existence. Looking over at Parvati who just nodded Akane gingerly touched the face up card. As before a beam shot out off the card. This time however there stood an winged woman with red hair. She then opened her eyes showing unlike the Mystical Elf of before this ShadowBeing had self-will.

Maximilian whistled, "This makes the hologram technology of Kaiba Corporation I was planning to acquire a part of my plan to give my wife an earthly body look like a sideshow attraction."

"What is a hologram?" asked Parvati nervously.

"It is a three dimensional image composed of light." commented Maximilian walking and looking over Harpie Lady.

Parvati relaxed, "Oh, so these holograms have no real substance."

"No. While life like they are not real. That was why I needed the other Millennium Items; to turn the holographic image of my wife into a flesh and blood body for her soul to enter."

"Well they may not be real but thanks to the Ki of the ShadowRealm which Akane has triggered with her own our friend here _is_." Parvati said putting another card face up on the table and putting her Ki into it. A moment the Mystical Elf appeared again her eyes open eager for instructions. "Go ahead, touch her." said Parvati gesturing to the elf.

Maximilian reached out fully expecting his hand to go through the elf. Instead his hand touched her shoulder, "Her skin, it's warm," reaching up he felt her neck, "She has a pulse." Maximilian backed up stunned, "She, she has a _mind_ though my Eye cannot read her thoughts and my Eye sees something that looks like a soul but I'm not sure."

"That is what I thought when I saw her the first time," Parvati said frowning, "but there are things different in this soul from what I am familiar with. Also like Pharaoh 90's creatures these ShadowRealm beings have a magical aura different enough that I would not even try using Sanjiyan Unkara magic directly on them. The results would be simply too unpredictable."

Maximilian frowned, "Now we do have a problem. The reason I came here was that I read in Professor Tomoe's thoughts that he is trying to alter Sanjiyan Unkara magic to bring Pharaoh 90 here to Earth. According to his thoughts he believes he is only weeks from being able to try."

Parvati put her head in her hands, "If he truly believes that he is bigger idiot than our father ever could be. Even if the magics were compatible such an alteration would take years. This makes a meeting with the Sailor Senshi even more imperative as we need a plan to go on the offensive before Professor Tomoe does something really stupid."

"I take the purpose of the meeting is so we don't go blundering along like my counterpart did." commented Ranma.

"Right." **crash** "Speaking of blundering along I hope that is not who I think it is." grumbled Parvati.

"Shampoo my love!" yelled Mousse as he grabbed the Mystical Elf. The elf just stood there for a while and then her left eye started to twitch.

Maximilian blinked, "Who is this?"

"This is Mu Si a martial artist with bad sight who does not wear his glasses. As result he winds up doing the most idiotic things. In a way he is lucky to have grabbed the Mystical Elf as any other female here would have pounded him by now." Parvati said rubbing her head in an effort to stave off a headache.

"Mistress, this Mu Si monster is making me very uncomfortable." said the elf.

"Well don't just stand there, defend yourself. According to the card that is what you are good at." fumed Akane.

The elf cocked her head to the side, "But, Mistress, this _is_ how I defend myself.

Harpie lady frowned and yelling "MOOSSE NO BAKA!" slammed a side table into Mu Si knocking him out cold. "You need to take the offensive sometimes my dear." she said to the Mystical Elf.

Shampoo looked at the twitching form on the ground. "Ranma learn flaws and overcome them, even Panda man do that so why cannot Mousse?"

"Center Sham Pu. You are getting angry and it's showing in your speech." commented Ranma as he put a hand on Sham Pu's shoulder.

"Gomen, Sensei." said Sham Pu her head down.

"It was understandable. Now that Pegasus-san is here perhaps we can put together what all of us knows about the ShadowRealm and the Shadow Games and see if we might be able to somehow use them to help clean up our other messes." commented Ranma. "Also I would like to find out why this ShadowRealm being or ShadowBeing for short showed self will when Mystical Elf didn't."

---------------------------------

Eric sighed at the mess the chase after Happosai had been and decided to try and take control, "Ladies perhaps instead of chasing Grandmaster Pervert all over Japan we rest up and go where we know he will go after he is done being a jerk."

Three very ticked off women turned and faced the blue lust demon who wondered if this was a good idea. "You know, Eric I must admit your idea has merit. Why waste our energy chasing the little jerk when we can go where we know he will eventually come to us." said Ryoko her spiked hair shimmering with sparks her fangs glinting in the waning light.

"Well the little jerk lives at the Tendo Dojo so we could go there and wait for him to show up and then have some fun." smiled the nearly naked woman as she bowed to the three eyed woman, "Forgive my manners, we are Onikami Amaterasu and Saotome Oni." Amaterasu then frowned, "What is the matter now Saotome Oni? I thought you wanted me to stop behaving like Genma's poster child of weak, weepy, women."

"I am Kinomoto Sakura and these are my friends Strong Eric and Cave Ryoko. Perhaps Saotome-san didn't mean for you to go so much in the opposite extreme." said Sakura nervously. "I mean you have been chasing after Happosai practically stark naked for nearly a day."

Amaterasu opened her third eye along with the other two as wide as possible, "I have been running through Japan..." she said as she looked down and then blushed a deep red and tried to cover herself. "WouldyouliketocomebackwithmetomyhomeinSazanwhereIcangetsomeclothes?"

"Uh yes." said Eric who along with his friends then felt the familiar distortion of going between Earth and Sazan. "ExcusemeIvegottogetbackhomeandputsomeclotheson." Amaterasu said as she took off like a shot.

"Well that was weird even by Nerima standards. Anybody notice that we seem to be the only ones here?" asked Eric.

"Who cares as long as they have strong coffee." said Ryoko, "I want us to have all night to plan our 'reward' for Happosai.

---------------------------------

The next morning on Earth-Tokyo found Maximilian Pegasus and Ke Lun drinking cups of strong coffee going over the last night's information exchange, debate, and demonstration. The Seven Lucky Gods or Martial Artists had gotten it into their heads that going to Egypt to get even more information was a great idea and so had taken off. Soun had managed to create a regular portal to Sazan and was having his summoned creatures raid the remains of the Hindu pantheon of every piece of written information they could get their claws on. Ranma and Parvati had spent the rest of the night playing Duel Monsters and figuring out just what the ShadowRealm beings could do in this world.

The last part concerned both Ke Lun and Pegasus though for different reasons. Ke Lun was worried on how she was going to explain this latest development to the rest of the Elders. It was bad enough that this little trip had shown that the Nujiezu were not superior to other peoples but now she had encountered something that even the Honored Ones feared and the key to that knowledge was held by a man of all things.

Ke Lun rubbed her shoulder; leave it to Genma to suggest sparring with the ShadowRealm beings. While at first glance it had sounded crazy it had proved informative; against the weak beings even Kuno was able to hold his own. As expected as the ShadowRealm beings went up in power things got harder and harder. Then Pegasus-san summoned that Relinquished thing and everybody's idea of what constituted power in the ShadowRealm went into the trash heap. It drove home the fact that was a lot to learn about the ShadowRealm and its inhabitants. The information in what books Pegasus had gathered from Hiroshima was fragmentary and dealt with something called Shadow Matches.

"If you think Relinquished was fun I should have added Toon World to the mix. That is a real barrel of laughs." said Pegasus smirking.

Ke Lun shot the "creator" of Duel Monsters a dirty look. "Despite what you think my mind is not a book you can pick up off the shelf and browse through on a whim." she hissed.

Maximilian smiled, "Unnerved that mere male can gain access to your people's secrets so easily? Remember my Millennium Eye is only _one_ of seven Millennium Items. In the thousands of years since the Shadow Games were ended they must have fallen into the control of others. Besides I noticed you rubbing your shoulder and figured you were recalling how Relinquished absorbed your Granddaughter for a short time and used her power against you. I don't need my Eye to see the obvious."

Ke Lun fumed, thanks to the ShadowRealm the emotional details of Pegasus's aura were impossible to read so he might be telling the truth. Pegasus frowned and put down his cup, "As you saw with Relinquished the ShadowRealm beings are not limited to each other as to what they can use their powers on. But monsters are only part of the game, there are also magic and trap cards. What if those can affect the real world as well? For example Trap Hole could take out the strongest warrior in a battle. More importantly _how_ will they work if they work. Will something like Castle Walls increase a monster's defense or will it create real castle walls? In the world you and I knew such issues were not even a concern but now with Hiroshima and Nagasaki changed the way they have..."

"Would you two like some more tea?" asked the Harpie Lady Ranma named Skyfeather.

"Yes, please." said Pegasus offering his cup.

Ke Lun frowned, as much as she hated to admit it Pegasus-san was right. Ranma, Ranko, Parvati, and Pai virtually defined obsessive compulsive when it came to improving themselves. It was only a matter of time before what could be done with Duel Monsters cards became public knowledge and then only a short time after that before somebody figured out how to access the ShadowRealm.

Skyfeather provided another wrinkle to an already complicated situation; not all ShadowBeings were will-less shells. However so far she had been the only ShadowBeing that showed self will; needless to say Ranma elected to keep her out as much as possible. Ke Lun noted that Skyfeather was just as at ease doing traditional Japanese housework as she was sparring.

Ke Lun wryly smiled, as with the scientists of the Manhattan Project they had unleashed a genie of knowledge that they did not truly understand. And as with the atomic bomb genie this one was not going back in the bottle either and the discovery process would prove to be one of both elation and headaches.

---------------------------------

"All this waiting is giving me a headache. You think by now we would have heard something. But no daimon attacks, no energy draining by anything, no unusually cold weather." Usagi grumbled. "And now we have a new threat called the Shadow Games."

"In short you're worried because we have not seen nor heard anything from our old foes and have a new one to worry about." commented Black Lady.

"I think Usagi's concern is that we have not finished dealing with the old enemies and a new one has shown up." said Prince Demando.

Usagi winced, "That is hardly the way I would have phrased it but that is in essence my concern. Paradox seemed to have redirected the efforts of the Makaiju servants but there is still Pharaoh 90 out there and a future villain called Snow Princess Kaguya, never mind our history's versions of Benares and Choukai. Plus whatever foes we might get just because we have been forewarned."

"Never mind that Paradox is likely fiddling around with our world just like Eclipse said she fiddled with the Disrupter's." commented Black Lady, "My main concern is these Shadow Games. Despite Luna's flippant remark she was right; Parvati sent that Takuhi because she was concerned about these Shadow Games."

Usagi sighed, "It is way past time the Inners, Outers, and Black Moon family started working together. Setsuna is certainly not Sailor Pluto and there is no way that I am going to become that airhead Neo-Queen Serenity or that nutcase Paradox. As for Uranus and Neptune they have seen enough examples of what running around like a bull in china shop could do that they now know better."

Prince Demando shook his head, "Wiseman did a good job at stirring up old resentments and fanning them into hate. It is going to be hard to drop those resentments much less the hate they were fanned into."

"Prince Demando, do you hate _me_ or do you hate Neo-Queen Serenity?" Usagi asked quietly.

Prince Demando closed his eyes for a moment and then opened them again, "I know that you and she are two different people. My problem is will the rest of the Black Moon Family see that?"

Usagi frowned, "Perhaps calling on the founders of the Silver Millennium rather its power directly might help. A group of Sanjiyan Unkara and Wu might be a little easier for your group to handle than the Sailor Senshi."

"That idea has merit." commented Black Lady who paused for a brief moment. "You know it would not hurt if Neptune and Uranus opened up more. Those two need someone else besides each other."

---------------------------------

"Hi, I am Kaiou Michiru. That looks interesting, what is it?"

"It's Duel Monsters and I am Mazaki Anzu though my friends call me Tea. I don't remember seeing you before, you new here?" Tea asked.

"No, I use to keep to myself. I have found out that that was likely a mistake. I would like you to meet a good friend of mine. Haruka, I would like you to meet someone." Michiru said her eyes sparkling with love.

Tea smiled at the tall man that approached the love clear in his eyes. She wished that she and Yugi were at least this close. "Mazaki Anzu, please met Ten'ou Haruka my very close friend." Tea nodded as Haruka sat down. Haruka raised an eye brow at one of the cards on the table. "This card." she begun pointing to the card.

"That is my favorite card. Magician of Faith." said Tea.

"The staff she is holding, it kind of reminds me of something the Princess would use." said Haruka.

Michiru blinked, Haruka was right. The staff the Magician of Faith of was holding _did_ look like the one Princess Serenity would carry on official meetings.

"Princess? What Princess?" asked Tea.

Haruka internally groaned; the emotional stress she had been feeling the last several days had made her express her thoughts verbally. Haruka then considered the fact with things as wild as they had been that some highlights of the truth were revealable. "Tea, you have heard about the Sanjiyan Unkara?" Tea nodded numbly, "Well Michiru and I are the reincarnations of the Elite Guard of a kingdom they founded in another reality well over 13,000 years ago. The daughter of the last Queen of this Silver Millennium was named Princess Serenity and often would carry a staff like that during official occasions."

"Surely it's just a coincidence." said Tea nervously.

"The way things are going I doubt it. How about you teach me and Haruka about this game?"

"Ok. There are three basic types of cards." said Tea, "Monster cards like Magician of Faith, magic cards like Monster Reborn, and trap cards like Mirror Force..."

Elsewhere a mirror hung in mid air above the prone form of Mu Si. "Interesting dreams but no Pegasus." said a man as he made a gesture causing the floating mirror to shatter, "At least Pegasus will not be able to hide in those dreams." he said as he walked away. The battle with the Dead Moon Circus had claimed what would be the first of many victims. Lying on the ground like a discarded broken puppet Mu Si's body was eventually found by Sham Pu's father.

"...I play Mysterious Puppeteer in defense mode and play Swords of Revealing Light." said Ranma.

"Cute, that freezes all the monsters on my side of the field for three turns and the more monsters both of us summon the more Life Points Mysterious Puppeteer gives you." said Parvati. "Gives me some time to try and figure out what you are up too and stop it."

"Wouldn't have it any other way sis. I play this face down in defense and these face down as well."

"Hard to believe that this innocent looking card game hides so much power." commented Parvati as she played some cards face down.

"Only if you have access to the ShadowRealm." said Ranma as he played Karate Man face up in defense mode.

"That may not be that much a limitation in the future." said Parvati as she put another card face down in defense mode and played Book of Mystical Arts.

Back at the dojo Soun was pouring over the first in the series of Sazan mystical books. Suddenly he jumped up and yelled "Pegasus-san I found it. Here is the golem puppet spell."

Maximillian walked over and looked at the book, "What are the limitations?" he asked.

"There don't appear to be any other than the summoner must make the puppet themself."

"Well looks like you and I are going to have some work to do."

"It a wonderful to see a dream become a reality isn't?" beamed Soun oblivious of the look Skyfeather gave him.

"I still have to find a way to contact your wife's soul." warned Maximilian, "If you are not careful and make sure her soul is willing that dream could very easily turn into a nightmare." Skyfeather's glare softened and she went back to helping Kasumi take care of the house.

---------------------------------

"Hello, Jounouchi Katsuya. Or should I call you Joey?" asked a purple robed figure of a blond headed kid who was talking with another kid with spiky hair "Events have altered so that the Duelist Kingdom Tournament will be delayed long enough that you will not be able to win the prize money in time to save your sister's sight."

"Who are you?" asked Joey angrily.

"I am Paradox and I have a proposal to save your sister's sight. All I want in return is a Shadow Game duel with your friend Tea."

"What do you know of the Shadow Games?" asked the spiky haired kid in firm voice.

"Admittedly not much, Mutou Yugi. Or should that be Yama Yugi? You know you are much like Saotome Pai/Parvati right down to the split personality." Paradox laughed as she lifted her hands to her face hidden by the hood, "The terms of my Shadow Game are simple. If Tea wins my entire kingdom including all the girls I have enlisted for my lust demon subjects is hers. However if I win Tea becomes my latest subject's plaything. However win or lose I will ensure that Serenity will not loose her sight."

"And what makes you think we would even consider such a Shadow Game." asked Yama Yugi.

Paradox laughed again her artificial voice making it sound all the more sinister and inhuman, "Because I pulled an idea from another timeline and taken a part of your Grandfather's soul to sweeten my end of the proposal. If Tea agrees to my Shadow Game I will return that part of his soul I have taken."

"What gives you the right?" said Joey pulling back his arm.

"I am the ruler of Earth in the 30th century, if you must know. And don't bother punching this form it is only a golem puppet. I am far away and safe." Paradox said the smugness showing through even her artificial voice, "But if you want an alternative by all means go to the Tendo Dojo. They should be able to save your sister's sight but part of Yugi's grandfather's soul will still be mine. I await your decision but don't take too long." finished the figure as it suddenly collapsed to the ground. Joey ran over and pulled the hood away.

"What the... she was right is it nothing more than a life-sized marionette. Yuge. What are we going to do?" asked Joey.

"We need to talk to Tea about this, come on Joey." said Yami Yugi as they both went into the cafeteria.

Meanwhile, "You seem to have a natural aptitude for this game." said Tea.

"Yes and it worries me. I have never played this game before but I seem to instinctively know what to do. It is like I have played it before." Haruka said as she played another card in defense mode.

Michiru looked up and frowned, "What in the world is Meiou doing carrying that staff in public?"

Tea and Haruka both looked up from their game and saw Meiou pale as she approached. Haruka and Michiru nervously looked around wondering what have filled Guardian Pluto with such dread. "Meiou-san are you are right?" asked Tea.

Meiou-san looked down at the game and relaxed slightly, "About as well as anyone with my knowledge would be, Anzu." she said as Joey and Yami Yugi entered. It was then that Guardian Pluto's old habits kicked in but instead of activating her sailor transformation she had grabbed a nearby glass of ice water and triggered her Jusenkyo transformation instead and then took up a defensive stance.

"Yuge did you see that? The school councilor just turned into a demon." said Joey nervously.

"I saw." said Yami Yugi his eyes narrowing.

Meiou-san blinked and looked down and swore aloud in Old Norse, "Blast, after all I have learned and I _still_ go back into my old habits when I sense something that could be a danger. I am going to have to get Saotome-sensei to break me of these 1,000 years worth of bad habits."

"Something that could be a danger?" asked Haruka narrowing her eyes and started moving her hand to her henshi stick.

"No." snapped Meiou-san seeing the move, "It is bad enough I have complicated this with my old over reacting habits we don't need it escalated with Sailors Uranus and Neptune in the mix."

"Sailors Uranus and Neptune?" asked Tea looking at the two women sitting with her. This produced some more colorful words from Meiou-san this time in ancient Greek.

Meiou-san slowly pulled herself out of her defense stance, "Sorry about my reaction, but we have a lot on our plates and the energy of this ShadowRealm and it related Shadow Games has me jumpy."

"Shadow Games? Yuge, that was the type of game that Paradox creep..." started Joey.

"PARADOX?" yelled the three women. Tea watched as her two new friends paled and hung their heads as if ashamed of something. Meiou-san rubbed her head, "Ok, could you start from the top and tell what that time traveling purple robed maniac is up to now?"

Several minutes later, Meiou-san's wings were twitching with anger her eyes gleaming with a look that promised untold pain to the object of her anger. "This has gone on far too long. Paradox must be stopped." she hissed.

"Easier said than done. Remember she is a twisted version of Neo-Queen Serenity we helped create." said Michiru looking like she want to find a nice hole to crawl into.

Meiou-san closed her eyes and centering herself opened them again. "All right _this_ has also gone on too long. It's long past time that the three of us stop beating ourselves up for something we did in another timeline. Those Sailor Senshi were no more us than the Valkyrie Warriors were. At least I have tried to make amends while the best you two have done is crawl into wells of self pity. I need you to learn from those mistakes and make yourselves better Sailor Senshi."

Michiru and Haruka both nodded. Meiou-san looked over at Yami Yugi. "It is obvious that Paradox has decided to make Tea the target of her latest sick plan. Fortunately for all her evil and insanity as far as we know she has not lied to us; so for what it is worth everything she has told you is true. My main concern is Paradox figuring out the true power of the ShadowRealm and using that knowledge to cause even more havoc."

Joey frowned, "What is this ShadowRealm and what is its true power."

Yami Yugi looked at Meiou-san intently, "I know that the ShadowRealm is a place of great power, but I am curious as to what you know about it."

Meiou-san nodded, "As you may have learned from the recent events there is a parallel reality called Sazan. What you and the rest of the world in general does not know is that Sazan is only one of many other worlds that also parallel this universe. The Silver Millennium which we called home some 12,000 years ago is one example and this ShadowRealm is another." Meiou-san then leaned back steepling her hands, "Like Earth, Sazan, and the Silver Millennium the ShadowRealm also has its native beings. However unlike those parallel realities ShadowRealm beings cannot exist in our world without help."

Joey leaned back startled, "Are you trying to tell me that the monsters in Duel Monsters are real?!" he stammered.

"More than that. Yugi, if I may see your dueling deck?" asked Meiou-san. Yami Yugi handed her the deck and Meiou-san nodded, "I thought so. I knew I sensed ShadowRealm Ki and your deck is saturated with it." Meiou-san said looking through the deck and putting the Mystical Elf card face up on the table, "Here is what happens when a card from a Duel Monster deck saturated with ShadowRealm Ki can do when charged with Ki of this world." she said putting a little bit of her Ki into the card.

Everyone still in the room gasped as a beam shot from the card and the Mystical Elf stood their chanting. "My dear Mystical Elf would you please sit and join us." Meiou-san said gently.

The Elf opened her eyes and smiling said, "Certainly, Mistress." The Elf then pulled out a chair and sat down.

"Uh what..., Yuge?" Joey stammered at his friend.

Yami Yugi narrowed his eyes again and touched the Elf. "Master?" she asked cocking her head to the side.

"This is not a hologram like what Kaiba used but a being of flesh and blood." Yami Yugi said frowning.

"Now imagine a time traveling psycho who is already raiding time for playthings for her demon subjects getting her hands on this kind of power." said Meiou-san.

"Frightening idea." said a tall boy with brown hair.

"Tristan, am I glad to see you." said Joey. "We have been talking about this Paradox creep who is trying to blackmail us into having Tea go into some kind of duel."

"I know Joey, I've been listening in. In fact I think everyone who was brave enough to stay knows what is going on and what is at stake."

"Paradox getting her hands on this power is not our only concern. There are others who would use such power for their own petty ends." Meiou-san said frowning "That brings me finally to the reason I was so brazen in my appearance. I went to the head of Egyptian antiquities for some information that might help. What I found instead was a corpse reeking with ShadowRealm energy. From what I could tell the man's own thoughts were used to kill him. Somebody else is involved in this and they are playing for keeps."

Not too far away that someone frowned. Shadi had sensed the power of the ShadowRealm when Meiou-san had activated the Mystical Elf card but it was so different what he was familiar with he didn't know what to make of it other than it rivaled if not surpassed that of the Millennium Items. His hand reflexfully went to his Millennium Ankh as he pondered this and the fact his mind probing of the Head of Egyptian Antiquities had been disappointing. It had almost been like part of the man's soul had been stripped away; one question and the Millennium Scales had caused his own fears to kill him. Not that the man hadn't deserved it, even though the days when tombs like the Pharaoh's could be looted were gone the man trafficked in stolen artifacts. Worse the man had trafficked in items taken from the Pharaoh's tomb so long ago, a totally unforgivable act and the Ankh had showed the man to be greedy, a fact that he had hidden from even himself. But it should had not had been so quick and now this.

Shadi kept walking to see if he could narrow the energy he was detecting down. After a few minutes it was clear that it was within Mugen Gakuen High School. Shadi nodded and decided to come back when school let out to see if he could see who had access to such power. When he returned he saw the Millennium Puzzle hanging from Mutou Yugi's neck and his eyes narrowed. He then noticed Meiou-san whose movements virtually radiated power. He used his Millennium Ankh to try and read her mind and encountered the first of many magic defenses she had erected against such probes.

Meiou-san narrowed her eyes and looked in the direction she felt the ShadowRealm magic try and breach her defenses. Seeing a young man dressed in a turban and flowing robes she put on her most unpleasant smile. 'Well now our unknown advisory has a face.' she thought. 'However, I cannot risk a confrontation with him until I know more about this ShadowRealm. Best to get these people to the Tendo Dojo where we can better protect them.' she thought gesturing for the group to follow her.

Shadi shook his head to clear it; he had never faced such raw power before. A guardian for the barer of the Millennium Puzzle? Yes it made sense. As least one of the defilers of the tomb treasures would have taken protective measures to who ever they gave the Millennium Puzzle to. He had to find out the power of the Millennium Puzzle and so carefully followed the group.

Meiou-san put on her standard Sailor Pluto mask. Their foe was following them in what he thought was a stealthy manner. Pathetic did not begin to describe his efforts; that outfit alone made the guy stand out like a neon sign. Never mind the ShadowRealm magic that made him stand out to anybody who had skill and knowledge enough to know what to look for. When they got to the Tendo Dojo she would change into Guardian Pluto; hopefully that would put him off from any immediate encounters.

Shadi started sensing something powerful as they moved though the Nerima ward of Tokyo. It took him a moment to realize that they were all moving toward it. More worrisome was the power he was sensing rivaled that of several of the Millennium Items put together. The group finally stopped in front of a house sporting two dojo signs and more oni then Shadi had thought existed. The woman then smiled and pulled out something and raising it above her head yelled "Pluto planet power, make up!" Shadi then saw the woman go through a transformation and the power he felt went up several notches. "Guardian Pluto, couldn't you have waited until you got to the back yard for that?" asked a kindly looking woman at the house's door. "Or did you forget that you are naked though part of that?"

The green haired women blushed, "He he, yes I forgot about that little detail."

A tall muscular boy who had just arrived shook his head, "Well I trust there was a reason for showing the neighborhood that green is your natural hair color."

A longhaired woman next to the boy elbowed the boy in the ribs, "Ranma, that could have been said more tactfully."

"True Akane, but my brother does have a point about Guardian Pluto giving everybody in eyesight a free peep show." said a small woman in a cool voice.

"Sorry, Parvati, but I intended to convince our latest problem that we and those we protect were not something to be messed with," said Guardian Pluto.

"And what latest problem is that, Parvati?" asked a familiar voice from the house.

"Him!" said Guardian Pluto pointing at Shadi just as a man Shadi recognized exited from the house.

Pegasus-san frowned, "Shadi, what are you doing so far from Egypt and more importantly why does Guardian Pluto think you are a problem?"

"Can't your Millennium Eye answer those questions?" smirked Guardian Pluto.

"You know even when you let me though all those defenses you have erected over the previous 1,000 years of your life your mind is like a maze." Pegasus-san then narrowed his right eye, "Shadi, even though you gave me my Millennium Eye I cannot let you continue on your vendetta against Egyptologists or threaten the welfare of these children."

"I thought he might have been the one who killed the Head of Egyptian Antiquities." Guardian Pluto said as she pulled out her compact communicator and activated it, "Stick around this place is about to become Sailor Senshi Central." Guardian Pluto said as she generated a blue aura that covered the two boys near her. Akane and her sister Nabiki narrowed their eyes and started generating auras as well moving so that their auras covered both Kasumi and Pegasus-san.

Shadi frowned, whatever this aura was it prevented his Millennium Ankh from accessing these people's minds. Quickly scanning the area he noticed that one of the girls what had came with Guardian Pluto was unprotected and quickly accessed her mind with his Millennium Ankh.

"Tea? What are you doing?" said Pluto as the girl started walking toward Shadi.

"I'm afraid she cannot hear you, Guardian Pluto; Shadi has taken control of her mind." growled Pegasus.

"Uranus planet make up! Neptune planet make up!" yelled two voices just as the Sailor Senshi appeared.

"Why is he doing this?" hissed Neo-Queen Serenity as she pushed past Pegasus-san her eyes glinting with an emotion that Black Lady had rarely seen: anger.

Pegasus-san scowled. "He is tracking down archeologists who desecrated some Egyptian Pharaoh's tomb and traffic in stolen antiquities. He also wants to know the power of the Millennium Item the boy there is wearing is. So he is threatening the girl's life to force the boy to reveal that secret. These auras and your magic should protect you from the effects of the Millennium Ankh just as they interfere with my Millennium Eye."

"Now I finally understand why my daughter Black Lady hates my guts," screamed Neo-Queen Serenity. "She sees me as being like you; a self-righteous megalomaniac who doesn't care about what innocent lives they destroy in the quest of their goals." Neo-Queen Serenity narrowed her eyes fire of pure hate burning in them "You have no more right to judge people anymore than I did! And for turning an innocent into a mindless puppet in the name of the moon I will punish you!"

"Oh Kuso. Mother's finally lost it." said Black Lady.

"Parvati, my Millennium Eye cannot undo what he has done to Tea all it could was make her aware of what has happened to her." growled Pegasus-san, "However I am betting that one of the magic cards in your deck might be able to break this creep's hold on her."

"Let's try the obvious shall we? Despell!" said Parvati as she blasted her Ki through the card.

"What in the world?!" stammered Shadi as the feedback between his Millennium Ankh and Parvati pumping Sanjiyan ward magic through the card knocked him down. That was all that saved him from being decapitated by Neo-Queen Serenity's tiara frisbee.

For a moment Tea shook her head and said, "Guys help me." before returning to what appeared to be a mindless puppet.

"Mother, calm down, we may need that jerk alive to free that woman." said Black Lady as she restrained her enraged mother.

"Parvati, what the blazes you doing?" yelled Ranma "those are not Sanjiyan wards you can evoke like that."

"Sorry Ranma, but even if this jerk cannot turn you or me into a puppet like Tea due to our multiple personalities the others don't have that defense meaning this creep may find a way through the aura. So, there is no way I giving him the chance to even try. Mystical Space Typhoon!"

"You have to admit, Ranma, it is knocking the guy around. Thought the effects on Tea are at best temporary. Oh Kuso, the creep just tossed Tea a tanto dagger." said Guardian Pluto her hand gripping her staff.

"I thought that would get your attention. Now unless you want to see your friend cut her own throat you will invoke the power of your Millennium Item, young one." said Shadi as he stared at Yugi.

Sailor Mercury ran up behind Tea and grabbed her hand trying to move it form her throat, "Good grief her strength is super human. It can't even budge her hand." stammered Sailor Mercury.

'If only she was immune. Wait a minute. That is it.' thought Neo-Queen Serenity "Parvati, toss Mercury your Polymerization card."

"Ok but I don't under..." said Parvati as Mercury caught the card. "Mercury, kneel down with the card face up!" yelled Neo-Queen Serenity as Parvati widened her eyes with sudden realization. "No..."

"I see you finally realized the foolishness in your resistance." said Shadi smugly.

"Who said she was surrendering creep?" said Neo-Queen Serenity. "May both of you forgive me but it is the only thing I can thing of." she whispered "Mercury, say Sailor Tea Mercury fusion make up and pour your energy into that card!"

Nodding Mercury yelled "Sailor Tea Mercury fusion make up!" blasting her power into the card on the ground.

The mixture of ShadowRealm and Silver Millennium magic created a blast that knocked everyone down. Shadi widened his eyes in realization of the power being unleashed and decided being scarce was the better part of valor and escaped in the confusion.

Tea opened her eyes crying. Just to get Yugi to activate his Millennium Item that creep had mentally raped her and the fact that it had not been a physical rape gave her little comfort. She then realized that she still had the tendo dagger to her throat. Tea then got mad, how dare that creep threaten her life to get at a person she cared for dearly. She threw the tendo dagger down and started looking for the jerk.

'Calm down Tea, there will be plenty of time for that.' said a worried voice.

Tea blinked and noticed everyone staring at her. She looked down and saw that she was wearing Sailor Mercury's outfit. "Guys what happened?" she asked nervously.

"NEO-QUEEN SERENITY, NO BAKA!" fumed Parvati as she walked up to the time traveling future queen of Earth and decked her with one punch. "Of all the moronic ideas you could have come up with! There is no way that I know of to reverse Polymerization. Now Mercury and Tea have to share one body for the rest of their lives!"

"Look I know it was desperate but if you had a better idea I would love to hear it." Tea heard the woman on the ground say as she rubbed the blood from her mouth.

"She is right, sis." said Ranma putting his hand on the shoulder of his angry sister, "With what little we knew of the ShadowRealm as well the way that guy was operating it was the only way to permanently break his hold on Tea. That he forced us to such extremes is just another thing to address when we finally get our hands on the jerk."

"My dear can I help?" asked Happosai as he walked over.

"Tea has enough on her mind without you copping a feel Happosai." Tea heard her own voice say.

Happosai sighed, "Mercury, there it is one thing to be a pervert which I will fully admit to being. But" he continued narrowing his eyes, "even I will not bother a woman who has been put through rape regardless of it being physical or mental. And don't you ever suggest that I would do otherwise again." Happosai said angrily. "I may be a perverted martial artist but when it comes between my perversion and my duty as a martial artist my duty wins hands down any day of the week!"

"Ok Happosai, we get the point that even you have your redeeming qualities." said Neo-Queen Serenity frowning "Tea, I am sorry that to free you I had to do this. If you want I can try and see if there is a way to reverse this."

"No. Not if it means I can be put through that again." Tea balled up her hands into fists, "It was horrorable, I could not move and I could sense him going through my mind."

"I humbly ask your forgiveness. I intended to try and free you with my Millennium Eye and instead made you aware of what that animal was doing." said Pegasus-san his Millennium Eye making his worried features look a little harsher.

"It's all right, you meant well. Though what are we going to tell our parents?" asked Tea.

"The truth and hope they don't put us into the intensive care unit of the nearest hospital." said Happosai pulling out his pipe.

---------------------------------

"MY DAUGHTER WAS MENTALLY WHAT AND IS NOW A WHAT?" yelled Mrs. Mazaki her face red with anger.

"Well she is taking it about as well as can be expected." said Happosai leaning back in a chair and looked over at Yugi's grandfather who just smiled at everything like a little kid. A lobotomy would have been kinder than what Paradox had done to the man. Just another thing to make that maniac pay for when they got their hands on her.

Dr. Mizuno frowned, "Yelling at Neo-Queen Serenity is not going to solve anything." she said firmly, "Especially as she meant to try and help your daughter. Though young lady," continued Dr. Mizuno eyeing the body that held her daughter "the three or perhaps that should be the four of us are going to have a long talk about your extracurricular activities."

Mrs. Mazaki seemed to calm down at the mention of a long talk. "What about the... the _animal_ that hurt my daughter?"

"Sadly he escaped in the confusion. And we have another problem." said Pegasus-san taking in a deep breath, "There is a time traveling maniac that is trying to blackmail your daughter into a Shadow Game with her. The prize is Tea's freedom and this maniac's kingdom."

Dr. Mizuno rubbed her head, "Pegasus-san, could you explain that statement in detail."

Pegasus sighed and went into detail about Paradox: who she was, what she was doing, and her current objective. By the time he was done both woman were furious but recent events prevented them lashing out at the most obvious targets. One thing that had been made clear with Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and the Emperor was people were the product of their history. Alternate versions of these people had created this madwoman but these versions were trying help the poor man Paradox had hurt and stop her from hurting others. Dr. Mizuno decided to get some sake as she figured that both of them need a little buzz to keep from putting this world's Sailor Uranus, Sailor Neptune and Neo-Queen Serenity into full body casts. Besides trying to make heads or tails of all this time travel sober was giving her a headache.

Ranma winced as he saw both women down their sake in one gulp. Well as long as the two women didn't get drunk it would not be too bad. Ranma's main concern though was either mother overreacting and grounding either daughter. "Ladies, I realize that this may not be the best time to bring this up but we really need Sailor Mercury to help us deal with our other problems."

"What _other_ problems?" asked Dr. Mizuno harshly.

Ranma promptly launched into answering that question while Parvati put her head into her hands. The Saotome knack for saying the wrong thing at the worst possible time had resurfaced with a vengeance. The mothers were not thrilled with the whole Sailor Tea Mercury situation and bringing up the other issues they had to deal with now was not a good idea. "It's going to be a long day," she muttered.

"Longer than you think." said an all too familiar artificial voice.

Dreading what she would see Parvati pulled her head out of her arms. For nearly minute you could have heard a pin drop as everyone turned to see a purple robed figure leaning against a wall. Ryoga was the first to finally react, yelling "PARADOX, PREPARE TO DIE!" as he put his fist through the hood of the figure followed by the wall behind it. He then pulled his hand back in surprise when he found that all that he had was an empty robe and some plaster.

"You must be going senile to think it was going to be that easy." came the voice from the opposite side of the room.

"Don't bother Ryoga," Pegasus-san said extending his arm "My Millennium Eye shows that there are no thoughts coming from the figure. Whatever it is it is not the real Paradox."

The figure clapped it hands together making a sound like two wooden blocks being knocked together "Bravo. What's your next trick? Pull Funny Bunny out of Toon World?" said the figure as Pegasus-san fumed.

"Another wooden puppet." scowled Joey.

"Give the boy a prize. I thought that you like to see how hopeless it is to try and directly fight or hide from me."

"No Paradox. We have figured out that most of your supposed power is really smoke and mirrors." said Ranma angrily, "I think the real reason for these puppets of yours is that you don't have enough power to face us directly."

The figure shifted, "What if you are right? The very fact I could get this puppet into this house shows that nowhere is safe."

"Actually that is where you are wrong." said Happosai as he jumped to an apparently empty part of the house. A moment later a purple robed figure appeared staggering back while the puppet collapsed, "Once Genma told me of his sealed deadly thieving techniques I figured out that you were using your magic to mimic them."

"Very clever, Happosai. I thought you were nothing more than a perverted freak; I will not make that mistake again." said the figure touching her wrist.

"If I can steal a woman's underwear without them knowing it then taking your little toy away is just as easy." said Happosai as showed a bracelet with a series of buttons on it.

"You have won this battle little man but the war is mine," said Paradox as she stamped her left heel. Happosai cried out as the bracelet got white hot while Paradox ran though the Time Gates relay that had appeared. "Kuso, I should have realized she had back ups." Happosai said as the relay winked out of existence.

Ranma knelt down and looked at the melted mass of metal. "It looks like there are circuits in this thing. I wonder why she needed this when she had access to magic."

"Mercury says perhaps it involves Clarke's Law." said Tea frowning.

"Clarke's Law?" asked Ranma puzzled.

"Mercury says it is a concept put forth by the science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke. It says that any significantly advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."

Happosai rubbed his chin in thought. "You know I have always wondered how Paradox could supposedly copy martial arts techniques without really knowing them. We always assumed she was using a form of corrupted form of Silver Millennium magic to do that. What if she has actually been using advanced technology to copy martial arts techniques?"

"Perhaps not just martial arts techniques." said Parvati as she picked up the puppet and hit it in the chest. "Take a look at this. Wires, little gears and bunch of other stuff I couldn't even begin to recognize." said Parvati gesturing to innards of the puppet.

"Joey, toss me that robe, Mercury wants me to use her computer to analyze it." said Tea as a visor came down in front of her eyes.

"Sure, Tea, here." said Joey as he tossed her the robe.

Tea frowned as Mercury explained to her what her visor was showing her, "This robe has microscopic robots known as nanites woven into the fabric. They are what gave it the appearance that a person was wearing it."

"So if we can find a way to damage her high technology we have a chance at crippling Paradox?" asked Ranma.

"It beginning to look that way but she may still have magic as a back up." said Happosai. "We need to get to the dojo and finally start planning some course of action."

Suddenly everyone heard explosions from outside the temple and everyone exited to see what was going on. Happosai smiled at what he saw, "Perhaps we can turn this latest development to our advantage and contain one of our problems at the same time."

---------------------------------

Shadi was not thrilled with this latest development. He had tracked down the barer of the Millennium Puzzle to this temple and encountered another person of great power. Not only had this person shrugged off his Millennium Ankh but now was throwing little pieces of paper that exploded. Had the whole world gone crazy?

Choukai was royally pissed. He had followed the trail of Kaiyanwang's betrothed to this temple and then this Gesu tries to invade his mind. He didn't care anymore that his magic was now considered 70 years out of date. No one treated a servant of the great Kaiyanwang that way. He would teach this fool the error of his ways.

"Happou Dai Karin!" said a voice and Choukai watched as his foe got pelted with little explosions and then dashed away. No this foe should not escape his vengeance. "Choukai, wouldn't it be better if you knew what you were fighting?" asked the voice. Choukai turned and looked at a small man who he had never seen before in his life.

"What the blazes is Happosai doing?" asked Neo-Queen Serenity.

"If I don't miss my guess would be practicing a key part of his Ryu; turn a situation to your advantage. Besides my fiancé wanted to take over the world not destroy it which means Pharaoh 90 is as much Choukai's enemy as ours." commented Parvati.

"Have you both gone crazy?" hissed Neo-Queen Serenity, "You said that just with the magic of your people he was able to destroy all the Inners two years from now and you want to give him access to even greater power?"

"That would only happen if he thinks we are Kaiyanwang's enemy. You know Choukai could do with a bath and some formula 411 shampoo." smiled Parvati.

Ranma smiled nodding his head, "I get you sis and now I think of it I suspect that is that is most likely what happened to both him and his boss in Sailor Nemesis' timeline."

"What are you two talking about?" asked Neo-Queen Serenity.

"All in due time all in due time my dear." chuckled Parvati.

Several minutes later as Pegasus-san went over with Choukai the details of the various enemies Parvati was explaining her idea to Ke Lun. "I must admit that your idea had merit Honored One. With careful use the Xi Fa Xiang Gao would turn Choukai in to a useful ally."

"And if he breaks out of it like my counterpart did he would become an even worse enemy." commented Ranma.

Parvati shook her head, "Done carefully enough I don't think he could break it. Remember the alternate version of him and Benares we met? Given when we know when that timeline diverged the only reasonable thing that could explain their behavior and beliefs was the real memories were suppressed and false ones implanted in their place."

Ke Lun nodded, "Besides as an old saying goes 'keep your friends close and your enemies closer'. Better to have Choukai here where we at least of some idea of what he is doing rather than out there doing kami-sama knows what."

Neo-Queen Serenity nodded, "Ok I see what you want to do, Parvati, and seeing in the results from Grandmaster's timeline the man would be a force for good rather than evil. But this is something we must deal with very carefully."

Everybody nodded on that and returned to the inside of the temple were Choukai was looking at some of Pegasus-san's cards spread out. "The one thing you learn early in magic is that there is _always_ a counter agent to a spell or ward." Choukai said studying the cards.

"That is true of Duel Monsters." continued Pegasus-san, "Take my favorite card Toon World, for example. Even though I have the only copy in existence there several ways to combat it. Copycat could be used to copy the card giving my opponent the same abilities or because it is a magic card any card that destroys magic cards would also work. Similarly the trap card Trap Hole will allow one to destroy any one monster on the field with an attack over 1000."

Neo-Queen Serenity frowned and picked up Toon World, "Parvati, you said all of the cards in Pegasus's deck were equal in Ki energy but I don't think this card was part of the original game."

"It wasn't." said Pegasus as he realized something, "That means as I add cards to Duel Monsters the more varied and powerful the ShadowRealm gets."

Neo-Queen Serenity nodded, "More than that you have just given me the key to reversing what I had to do to Mercury and Tea. You simply create a Depolymerization card which reverses the effects of the Polymerization card and add it to your deck. Once the card picks up enough ShadowRealm Ki then they can use it to separate Mercury Tea back into two people." she finished setting Town World back down.

Pegasus frowned, "Maybe I don't need to create a new card." he said pulling five cards from his deck and putting two cards face up though he kept one close to him. "Mercury, I have discarded Hiro's Shadow Scout to active Magic Jammer. Put your energy into this card, Mercury. If I am right it should separate you two and if I am wrong it will do nothing. As for protecting you from Shadi's Ankh I think we can come up with a better method then this one."

Sailor Tea Mercury looked at the card and gently touching it whispered "Mercury power, make up." Everyone watched as Mercury and Tea separated into two people again. Pegasus smiled and picked up the card and suddenly frowned, "That idea worked but it created a new problem." he said gesturing to a new card on the table.

On the table was a purple monster card that said Sailor Tea Mercury with eight stars 2200/1500 Spellcaster/Fusion/Effect. "As long as this card remains face up both players must show their hands. In place of an attack 1 magic card may be selected from the deck or graveyard. Ouch. That is like a combination of a beefed up Magician of Fate combined with Ceremonial Bell." said Pegasus.

"Now I am really worried." said Ranma, "It is one thing to bring these beings into this world but it looks like the process is two way. Certain things in this world can be duplicated in the ShadowRealm."

Pegasus smiled, "As part of my planned acquisition of Kaiba Corporation I was going to host a Tournament at Duelist Kingdom with new rules to challenge player's skills. Perhaps I can use what we learned from summoning ShadowRealm beings into this world as the foundation for the new rules I planned to have in the Duelist Kingdom Tournament. While I can use the magic of my Eye to create Ki it is only strong enough to directly summon level 4 or lower monsters. To summon level five or six monster I had to use the Ki of a previously summoned monster to active it. The level seven and above monsters were even worse as even Ranma had to pump so much Ki into the card to summon them. Instead of continuing to allow high level monsters to be normally summoned I will say a tribute of an already existing monster must be paid for five to six level monsters and a tribute of two for level seven and above. That way if people do figure how to access the ShadowRealm we will be beter prepared to handle it."

Parvati nodded, "An excellent idea as it also will prevent a skilled martial artist from wrecking havok by putting five level 7 or higher monsters in to play one right after the other. However given what happened here we really need a better bridge between the ShadowRealm and Sazan. If for no other reason as to give us some better understanding of these beings."

"I agree. While a card image was formed when Reliquished grabbed Shampoo it disappeared once it let her go so I thought nothing at it at the time. Now I realized that even the smallest detail is important." said Pegasus looking down at the card "What concerns me more is that Tea could be at risk."

"That's simple really. We let her and her friends stay in the house and dojo we set up in Sazan. Or if their parents would feel more comfortable we could talk to Onikami Amaterasu have them stay at her home. Kami-sama knows it has enough rooms." said Ranma.

Parvati looked at the two mothers and smiling wryly asked, "Ok what would you like to do?"

---------------------------------

"Hello, Choukai, I thought you would you like a shampoo and then a massage," said Parvati as she entered the bath room several hours later.

"Sanjiyan Unkara, please it is unseemly for you to act as a servant." said Choukai from the foro.

"Nonsense. It is my way of saying thank you to a loyal servant of my betrothed. Besides it allows me to confide a suspicion of mine."

"A suspicion?" asked Choukai his eyes narrowing."

"Yes" said Parvati as she started lather up the shampoo. "What has happened with Professor Tomoe mirrors what happened with my betrothed too much to be a fluke."

"What are you saying?" asked Choukai as Parvati started working the lather into his hair.

"Very simple. I don't think this was Pharaoh 90's first attempt at destroying the world." said Parvati as she deftly applied the Xi Fa Xiang Gao. With the correct combination of pressure points Choukai could soon forget all conflicting memories and believe her version of events. "I believe that the reason my beloved went crazy had nothing to with a failed attempt to become human but was an early attempt by Pharaoh 90 to destroy this world." Parvati then when went in her theory.

Choukai frowned as he realized that his original mission did not make sense. If as Amaterasu proved there were other Sanjiyan Unkara tribes around then their Kunlun vessels did not have to follow the form he was familiar with. So why was he doing what was a fool's mission even before things went crazy? The only answer that made sense was to keep him and the other servants of Kaiyanwang so busy they weren't thinking about their instructions. When Parvati mentioned that used a certain way the Ningen No Zou could destroy the world Choukai got very worried and wondered just whose instructions Benares was really following. Finally thanks to Parvati's hints combined with the Xi Fa Xiang Gao Choukai finally came to the conclusion Parvati had been working toward.

"I will make this Pharaoh 90 pay in blood and pain for what had has done to my master and his people." said Choukai this eyes burning with a familiar fanaticism.

"In due time, Choukai; but first we need your knowledge of Sanjiyan Ward magic to boost the powers of the new tribe we have been building. Also your knowledge will be critical to learning how to possibly use the ShadowRealm to our advantage." smiled Parvati as she started to massage Choukai's shoulders. "You can begin as soon as you want."

A district away Professor Tomoe smiled at the beginning stage of his hurriedly clobbered together backup plan to bring Pharaoh 90 to this world. The little demon bird chirped at him trying to figure out what he wanted. This plan was progressing better than he hoped. However it was still a long way to master the summoning spells before he could even begin to alter it. Annoyed at being basically ignored the little demon bird flew off into the sky as Professor Tomoe started working on what else he could summon.

---------------------------------

Morning found Pegasus in the Tendo Dojo holding his breath at what was the first real attempt to merge Sanjiyan Unkara and ShadowRealm magic. The puppet before him opened its eyes. "Maximilian? Did it work?" it asked in a voice all too familiar to him.

Pegasus hugged the puppet, "Yes it worked, my dear Cynthia. The first step at giving you a flesh and blood body worked better than I hoped. I was able to use the Millennium Eye to put your soul in this golem puppet. Now all that remains is to find a way to create a permanent ShadowRealm body for you and move your soul there."

Parvati, Ranma, Choukai and Ke Lun all pondered the display before them. "This ShadowRealm magic is every bit as powerful as Parvati said it was. The idea of the untrained having potential access to this power is frightening." Choukai said to Ke Lun who along with the others grimly nodded.

"From what Parvati said it more worrisome because it involves something known as the Shadow Games," commented Ke Lun was immediately treated to the rare sight of Choukai going bone white pale. Parvati meanwhile was pleased; in one day Choukai had managed to give enough input to make the first stage of bringing Maximilian Pegasus's wife back a reality and determined that it had been the destruction of his dreams that had killed Mu Si.

"The Shadow Games?!" he whispered his eyes showing momentary showing the same depth of fear that Parvati's had. Then another emotion took hold and Choukai smiled a confident manner. "Master choose well for his betrothed. Only some one of great power and daring would attempt to add the strength of the Shadow Games to Sazan."

Ke Lun frowned at the comment while Parvati smiled. "When knowledge of something was gained too quickly the wisdom to properly use that knowledge was nearly always sorely lacking." Ke Lun commented, "We have the wisdom but do the others who possess the Millennium Items?"

"You are right Elder, power should be only for those with the strength of mind and will to grasp it." said Choukai gripping his hand into a fist, "Pegasus has grown into his Millennium Eye well but this Shadi, he uses his item with all the skill of a bull in a china shop. And there are five other items out there. Who knows what brilliance or idiocy they are being used for. We already know they can kill as well as enslave."

"It would help if we knew what powers those items had." grumbled Setsuna as she walked into the dojo, "The problem is there are so many variables that I cannot use the Time Gates to look into an alternate timeline involving only the Millennium Items. We are truly on our own this time."

"Yes my dears you both should go to school with Ranma and Parvati. Just as a precaution." said Ganma's voice.

Ranma and Parvati both looked at each other. "How much you want to bet Pops has gone back to basics and done something baka?" asked Ranma.

"That is a sucker bet brother. Let's go and see what Kami-sama's gift to the art of stupidity had gone off and done." Parvati said as she moved to get up.

"Don't bother Baka-sama is coming to us." said Ranma as his father entered the Dojo. Behind him was average height woman wearing a red kimono with exaggerated trim. Her waist long blond hair was offsetted by a green jester's like cap decorated by crystals. Beside her was Skyfeather.

"Princess Tsurugi and Skyfeather will be going to school with you," said Genma smiling like he just discovered a new technique.

Kasumi then asked "Tsutugi-sama, would you like breakfast?"

Skyfeather smiled "Let me help, Kasumi."

Ranma and Parvati groaned, Ke Lun put her head into her hands and Choukai simply looked about bewildered.

At the Sazan-palace Mrs. Mazaki and Dr. Mizuno were having much the same reaction as Choukai to their daughters talking to some of the oni that Amaterasu had about the place. Only the assurance of the goddess had convinced them to stay when they had seen the oni and other guests. Now things were getting _really_ weird. "You know I wish he wasn't dead," commented Dr. Mizuno.

"You wish who wasn't dead?" asked Mrs. Mazaki.

"The American Rod Serling, because we have obviously gone full tilt into the Twilight Zone and right now I think he would have been the only one able to explain this mess."

"I think not only Japan but the whole world is having that feeling now. The land of the Rising Sun has become the land of the Ever Increasingly Weird and Confusing."

"In that case we might have been better off with a man who specialized in the weird but true, Robert Ripley," said Happosai pulling out his pipe and lighting it.

"You have been here for a full night and have not groped one woman. You feeling all right?" asked Amaterasu as she approached the three.

Happosai sighed, "I'm feeling fine but right now Tea needs a protector not a perverted old man."

"So you _can_ show self restraint." Amaterasu said her voice showing a tinge of anger. "What I would like to know is why you could not show that same restraint when I was taking my bath."

"The answer is very simple, my dear. You are quite able to physically and more importantly emotionally able to defend yourself. " Happosai then chuckled, "I dare say that if you had been as you are now when your brother approached you would not run into a cave but done very painful things to him."

Amaterasu frowned, "You have that right. I think I am beginning to understand something. Once I calmed down I realized that you had drained a little of my Ki both times you _touched_ me. You use female Ki to extend your life, don't you?"

Happosai nodded. "Correct and because dark female Ki is normally passive I need to make a female angry so they generate enough light male Ki that I can better absorb the female Ki." Happosai paused to blow a smoke ring, "I trained Hinomiya Hinako in my technique as her Ki was royally messed up. Without a means to absorb Ki she would have likely never made it past childhood."

"Now I understand why you bothered me and all the other women despite having Hiro Lilly around. She was _too_ accommodating. She just could not get constantly angry so you could effectively make use of her Ki."

Happosai again nodded, "The only way I was able to make use of her Ki the first time was she was angry over the way other Kami and Oni had been treated and the way Saotome Ranma had been treated in his Japan. Once that anger faded Lilly for all of her mammoth Ki reserves was next to useless to me. You on the other hand can get angry enough and as a result I have enough to keep me going for over a week."

Amaterasu snickered, "It is more than just a means to extend your life isn't it? Like a vampire you have become dependent on female Ki for your very existence." Happosai didn't say anything but Amaterasu knew from his frown she had discovered the truth. She now had a weapon against the little pervert but the question was could she use it.

---------------------------------

Hinomiya Hinako giggled as she got to her classroom. Ranma and his sister were her favorite students. They could learn things so fast and they knew such interesting games. That Duel Monsters game was interesting and looked like it could be fun. Hinako frowned, she felt some unfamiliar but powerful Ki. Looking up she saw a woman with piercing eyes in a red kimono with exaggerated trim. Her waist long blond hair was offset by a green jester's like cap decorated with crystals. Beside her was what looked like an beautiful version of a Harpy out of Jason and the Argonauts.

"Hinako-sensei, may I present Princess Tsurugi and Skyfeather. They are ShadowBeings." said Ranma.

Anywhere else this little stunt could have triggered of dozens of events. But this was Nerima, which was able to handle a level a weirdness that would reduce even a Tomobiki or Juubangia resident to an emotional basketcase. Locally the residents of Nerima held their ability to handle weirdness as the epitome of the Japanese ideal of being able to go though nearly anything somberly; to nearly anyone else it was a clear sign that perhaps the whole ward was an unofficial lunatic asylum.

---------------------------------

"I think the only way this be more of a mess is if we had members of a lunatic asylum involved." grumbled Ranma as everybody argued on how to deal with Pharaoh 90.

"Given what is required to live in Nerima who says we don't." smirked Happosai.

"That is not helping, Happosai." Choukai growled as he slapped his hand on the table getting everyone else's attention, "As Sun Zsu would have said knowledge of your foe is the key to victory. We know what is being planned and we have a rough idea on how it is being done. What else do we know?"

"We are on a time limit and I do not mean just on the matter of how long it takes Professor Tomoe Souichi to figure out enough Sanjiyan Unkara magic to do something dumb." said Pegasus looking at his niece the sorrow clear in his right eye, "Mistress 9 was consuming my niece's soul so the odds are whatever is in Professor Tomoe is doing the same thing." Pegasus turned to Guardian Pluto his right eye hard, "Right now I need to know one thing about your timeline; when my niece sacrificed herself to stop Pharaoh 90 was there anything left of my brother in law."

Hotaru looked over at Guardian Pluto who sighed, "Honestly I don't know but given that Mistress 9 told whatever was in your father to leave and then mentally tortured the man before killing him, there had to be something left."

Setsuna frowned and glumly added, "We have one major problem. Something caused Pharaoh 90 to move up its time table by nearly a year. Even though I saw Guardian Pluto's timeline much of the information I gleamed from it is borderline useless. That makes going on any _detailed_ information iffy at best."

"Ok, let's work on the assumption that there is something of Professor Tomoe Souichi to save." Choukai said forcefully glancing over at Hotaru, "Can we pull what is controlling him out?"

"Well other than making a Wu we have several ShadowRealm alternatives. The problem is from what Setsuna told me the ShadowRealm was critical in weakening Pharaoh 90 so Hotaru could take it out." Pegasus looked though his deck for a moment and nodded, "We need to take out Pharaoh 90 or this whole mess will start all over again."

"No!" Hotaru said forcefully, "This will not happen again. This Pharaoh 90 must be stopped before another girl's live is destroyed." Hotaru then started crying, "Pegasus do what you can to save my father but if you have to, to save the world..."

Pegasus hugged his niece as she cried, "I know but that does not make it any easier, no matter how much time we have."

---------------------------------

Several weeks later Ami sighed as her visor snapped down in the middle of math class. Loosing her temper and telling her mother that she had already died when fighting Queen Beryl and Sailor Moon had brought her back had been the most idiotic thing she had ever done in her life. As a result she was now Sailor Mercury 24/7. The one good side to the whole situation was she now knew in an instant when something happened. Ami frowned as her visor was showed her a build up of dimensional gate energy coming from Professor Tomoe Souichi's home. Excusing herself she ran to the roof and fired off a Ki bolt. Coming back down she was soon joined by the other Sailor Senshi and together they all dashed to the area where they were greeted by Ranma, Parvati, Choukai, and Pegasus. Above the house a nexus of energy was rapidly forming, at its center was a red spiral entity eagerly waiting to come into this world and consume everything. On the top of the house Professor Tomoe was laughing like a maniac proclaiming the end of the world.

"What the blazes is that thing?" yelled Ranma.

"It's a realm rift, a rip between realities and at its center is Pharaoh 90." yelled Parvati over the sound of the rising wind.

"Father, stop this. Please I know there you are in there somewhere." pleaded Hotaru.

"Foolish girl, your father had been gone for years. All that remains is this humble servant of Pharaoh 90." laughed the man once known as Tomoe Souichi.

"Nice bluff daimon, but this," Pegasus said pointing to his Eye "says otherwise." Pegasus glanced over at Choukai, "Choukai, can your wards do anything?"

"This wind makes my Wards useless and at the rate that thing is expanding we do not have much time." yelled Choukai as the wind blew a tossed ward behind him where it ineffectively exploded.

"The end is neigh." gloated the diamon inside Professor Tomoe.

"For your master Pharaoh 90 not for the world." yelled Pegasus as he moved next to Parvati with the Ningen No Zou setting it down on the ground.

"Time to see if this hair brained desperate plan actually works." yelled Parvati pulling out her deck, "Now let's see if you were everything my father said you were." Parvati said as she knelt down putting the five pieces of Exodia under the front part of the Ningen No Zou. Parvati squinted as the wind threw junk her way and she pumped her Ki through the Ningen No Zou into the cards. Exodia appeared and Parvati yelled "Exodia, obliterate Pharaoh 90." The towering monster nodded and walked through the swirling vortex. Pulling back a massive hand Exodia then shot an energy blast at the red spiral thing that was Pharaoh 90. A moment later there was a massive explosion of light and sound that knocked everyone still standing down.

"You destroyed Pharaoh 90?!" stammered the daimon inside Professor Tomoe pulling out a dagger.

"You have got to be kidding." said Ranma as he ran up and disarmed the man.

"Enjoy your triumph for it will be a tragic one." suddenly Professor Tomoe screamed and went limp.

"Father!" yelled Hotaru running over.

Professor Tomoe opened his eyes looking at his daughter blood leaking from his mouth. "I wanted to bring you back but I never asked the price. I hope you can forgive a foolish old man..." Professor Tomoe then coughed and with a final shudder went still.

"Choukai, what the hell happened?" growled Ranma.

Choukai knelt beside the crying Hotaru and laid his hand on Professor Tomoe 's body, "The diamon used what power it had to cause a major blood vessel to rupture. Nothing could have saved him." I am sorry guardian Hotaru, it was the one thing we did not plan for."

"No plan survives the encounter with the enemy." said Sailor Uranus in a hushed voice. "Hotaru, I know we did some really stupid things to you in the past because of what we thought you were but we know better now." said Sailor Uranus as she came up and held the crying woman, "I guess what I am trying to say that you still have a family. Neptune and I would be honored to be your parents."

Hotaru stopped crying and looked at Uranus frowning. The woman had tried to kill her! Then she realized from what she had learned about the original Sailor Saturn she may have had good reason. Hotaru sighed, "I appreciate the offer but I don't think I am in any emotional state right now to decide."

Uranus looked down, "I understand. Your father has just died and in our first meeting we tried to kill you. Given those conditions I guess I wouldn't exactly trust us either."

Ranma scowled, "Looks like you have mastered the Saotome Ryu technique of shoving your foot into your mouth up to the hip." gesturing at the body Ranma continued, "Despite planning our collective brains out and beating Pharaoh 90 we still were not able to save Professor Tomoe's life. I don't think anybody is really in an emotional state to do make any kind of major decisions right now."

Parvati shook her head, "Only you could combine both a demonstration of a technique with a criticism of it."

Ranma rubbed his head, "That didn't come out right did it?"

"No, but you are right in that none of us is up to thinking clearly. I think getting home is the main concern and then tomorrow we had start sorting out this."

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Author's note: The anime series eliminated Shadi's second encounter with Yugi making him less nasty. In the manga during the second encounter Shadi tries to force a confrontation with Yami Yugi by taking over Yugi's archeologist relative and having him try and strangle Joey. When that doesn't work he then turns Tea into a puppet and threatens to have her walk off a ledge to her death.

Duel Monsters has vastly different rules in the anime than the one in 'real life' Many cards shown in the anime simply don't exist or function very differently. To make this more interesting I will be freely mixing the two though I will lean towards the anime.


	25. Chap 25 Formation of the League

Chap 25 Formation of the League

Ranma 1/2 is the creation of Rumiko Takahashi, 3x3 eyes (Sazan Eyes) is the creation of Yuzo Takada, Sailor Moon is the creation of Naoko Takeuchi. There are also a few other characters from other anime which belong to their respective creators. All are used without permission. This fan-fiction isn't intended for commercial use but is rather a tribute to Ranma 1/2, 3x3 Eyes, and Sailor Moon.

"We need to do WHAT?!" exclaimed Ranko.

"Emperor Hirohito or rather General Yamato says for political reasons he cannot be the go between for Earth and Sazan and right now we are the best he has to work with. Also he points out that the leaders of the world need here on Earth representatives of the various worlds we have contacted to talk to," said Amaterasu frowning as she reread the letter.

"That is crazy," ranted Ranko, "Neither you, Parvati, or me have the authority much less the right to speak for all of Sazan. The same goes Princess Tsurugi and the ShadowRealm. I am not sure it is even valid for Sailor Moon and the Moon Kingdom as her authority ended with her life 12,000 years ago and Neo-Queen Serenity comes from a now impossible future."

Choukai shook his head, "As General Yamato pointed out this is for political reasons. Politics and reason hardly ever go together."

"If this is an typical example you have that right. Look, we just defeated Pharaoh 90 a few days ago. Hotaru is still trying to sort out her feelings toward the other Outers. We have some new enemy killing people by destroying their dreams and at least one mind controlling kill happy Millennium Item wielding nutbar running around out there. You, Pegasus, Neo-Queen Serenity, and Oni regularly commute between here and the Sazan-Tendo house because we simply don's have room Earthside. And General Yamato now wants us to set up some sort of United Nations? Like where for one would we get or put a place that big in Japan? Space is a premium around here you know. Never mind that such a place would be a target for every overzealous demon hunting fruit loop out there."

"I take you are talking about that Section 13 Vatican maniac that tore through Hiroshima about a week ago?" asked Pegasus as he looked through his deck.

"Not just him. His antics got him in the papers but there are also isolated incidents that didn't but since my counterpart founded the KamiOni the membership send me incident reports," Ranko said pulling out a think folder and started leafing through it, "A married couple were making out when some demon hunting half wit shows up and attacks the husband because she thought he was raping his wife. Then there was the moron who tried to drive out the demons possessing people and instead put a couple in hospital as they didn't react well to _our_ reality's Shinto wards. And those are just the home grown loons. It is a real mess."

"It would be. Don't forget that other world had since 1942 to adjust to Hiroshima and Nagasaki as well as other realities. This world by contrast has gotten informational overload," said Pegasus as he pulled a card out of his deck. "This should solve your three main concerns," he said showing it to the assembled people.

"Castle of Dark Illusions?" asked Neo-Queen Serenity.

"Yes. The castle floats meaning not only does it not take up valuable real estate but a moving target is a little harder to hit. Also as level four monsters go it has a respective defense of 1930 which we can beef up with the magic cards Sword of the Deep-Seated and Reliable Guardian to 3130 more than enough to withstand an assault by a Blue Eyes White dragon. Just for added security we throw in Castle Walls trap card for a one shot 3630 defense," Pegasus said pulling out a little box.

"Impressive but if I remember correctly there are both trap and effect monsters that could damage it," commented Choukai.

"That is why we include Waboku which has an effect much like Negate Attack and Block Attack. For guards we have Wall of Illusion, Armed Ninja who has a Despell ability, and Magician of Fate just in case someone does get lucky and takes out one of the magic defenses. This should stop all but the determined from getting in," He said as he carefully put the cards into specific areas of the box.

Ranko rubbed her head, "Well I admit the idea has merit. Let's get this project under way," She said touching the Castle of Dark Illusions card and putting her Ki into it. Looking up she whistled, "Gads that thing is huge. I just thought of something though, all somebody needs to do is pick up the card and poof."

Pegasus laughed, "I know that your father has put the Princess of Tsurugi card face up in a safe place. I designed this box for a similar long term test on a far grander scale," he said pulling out a pane of glass from the bottom of the box. "This pane of glass holds down the monster cards while still allowing access to the magic and trap cards."

"I get you. We take the box up to the Castle and invoke the rest of the stuff there. That way the Castle in a sense protects itself. Ok well let's grab a Fei-Oh or Takuhi and get up there," said Ranko resigning herself to the latest in a long series of crazy ideas.

In the Juubangia district Ami smiled as she heard a familiar chirp. Tea gracefully dismounted from the Takuhi as Ami ran up to hug her. "I see your mother has not relented either," Tea said frowning.

"At least you can be yourself, Tea, even if you have access to the Sanjiyan Unkara spells that Ranko and Parvati were teaching us," said Ami.

Tea smiled sadly, "Like being able to call up Oni is being myself. At least a Takuhi has a lot less freak out effect than a Fei-Oh."

"Tea, I know you are not happy with Neo-Queen Serenity...," started Ami.

"But she meant well? Right just like she meant well in the 21st century with her let me cleanse your evil or I will exile you to the tenth planet Nemesis idea," spat Tea who then closed her eyes and sighed, "I'm sorry, Ami, I didn't mean to take it out on you," Tea then opened her eyes, "I am just not sure where Tea ends and Ami begins as every time I turn around one of your memories pops up in my head."

"I always wondered what Ranma/Ranko and Pai/Parvati go though. This was sure was not the way I wanted to find out," said Ami as she picked up a stone and tossed it.

Tea and Ami stiffened and looked in the direction of Nerima. "What in the world are they doing now?" asked Ami.

"I have no idea but it is big," Tea frowned, "While you and I have a strong affinity to the use of ShadowRealm magic it is times like this I wonder just how strong it is and if as a result we aren't even human anymore."

Back at the Tendo residence Cynthia Pegasus was having much the same thoughts. She rubbed at her arm and frowned as it felt more fleshlike. At this rate her husband would not have to move her soul to a ShadowRealm body. She turned her attention to Neo-Queen Serenity and Princess Tsurugi; neither one was taking the latest development well. Cynthia largely agreed with Ranko's assessment though for different reasons. Princess Tsurugi was fighter not a diplomat and worse she seemed to thrive on conflict. Then there was Neo-Queen Serenity; her idea of diplomacy had largely been either cleanse it of evil or keep pounding until it stayed down.

Cynthia shuttered remembering the vapid simple minded expression on the face of poor Yugi's father. Eclipse pointed out with much disgust that the man had been subjected to a more extreme version of Neo-Queen Serenity's cleansing. If that was even remotely close to what the people of Earth had been reduced to small wonder Wiseman had wanted to kill everybody he could get his hands on; better to be dead than live like that. Cynthia frowned that was one question that had never been answered; who had Wiseman been? Someone famous? Someone obscure? She just had to know. Turning back to the house she found Setsuna frustrating herself with the Time Gates, "Setsuna, I would like a favor," she said.

Setsuna looked up from the relay she was struggling with, "As long as it does not involve looking into the future of this world. Even since the ShadowRealm got involved I have become increasingly blind and deaf to the future of this timeline. Now the Gates are totally useless to look more than a day into the future for anywhere in this world."

"I want to go to Neo-Queen Serenity's future and see if there are any clues to who Wiseman had been."

"It would be an improvement over pounding my head into this temporal brick wall," said Setsuna as she gestured causing the image of Wiseman's chambers to form. "But I am coming with you, just in case Paradox is still lurking about."

Cynthia nodded as she and Setsuna stepped through the Time Gates.

---------------------------------

Diagrams and detailed plans littered Wiseman's quarters. Picking up one Cynthia frowned, "Looks like Wiseman was something of a technological wizard."

"Unfortunately it also looks like he subscribed to the pile method of filing. A pile for everything and everything in its pile," said Setsuna looking at another diagram, "Looks like he was working on some sort of portable hologram generator."

Cynthia noticed a desk over in a corner. Walking over she opened the top drawer. "Well here is something. Looks like Wiseman was a duelist before things went south," she said picking up the deck inside.

"Well if he was any good perhaps his deck will give us a clue," Setsuna said picking up a blueprint, "Because these plans sure are not."

"Nothing to distinguish his deck so far. Crush card, Sagi the Dark Clown, Waboku, Hitotsu-Me Giant, Dark Energy, oh no," Cynthia said paling.

"What is it?" asked Setsuna worried.

"I know who Wiseman was," Cynthia said as she looked through the rest of the deck pulling out three cards.

"Who was he?"

Cynthia simply showed the three cards from Wiseman's deck.

Setsuna blanched at the three identical monster cards. According to Pegasus there were only four cards of that monster and only one person had three copies of the Blue Eyes White Dragon.

---------------------------------

"Seto Kaiba? Wiseman was Seto Kaiba?" asked a stunned Pegasus.

"Looks that way," Cynthia said setting Wiseman's deck down.

"Just because he had Kaiba's deck doesn't mean he was Kaiba," said Joey, "It is one thing to be a cold hearted jerk but from what you said this Wiseman was a mass murder. That just doesn't sound like the Kaiba I saw dueling with Yuge."

"Who knows. Maybe the whole cleansing thing pushed him off the deep end," said Ranko giving Neo-Queen Serenity a dirty look who shuttered under the glare.

"Besides there were other things indicating that Wiseman was Kaiba. Plans and diagrams for hologram devices all over the place. Then there is this picture of a boy who I presume is a relation," said Setsuna opening the locket she had pulled off of Wiseman's body.

Pegasus looked at the picture and frowned, "One problem, _this_ is a picture of a younger Seto Kaiba rather than his younger brother Mokuba," Pegasus looked up, "Looks like both you and Joey were right. Wiseman was a Kaiba just not Seto Kaiba," Pegasus put his hand to his chin, "My original plan for bringing my wife back involved kidnapping Mokuba as part of a powerplay by the five Board of Directors of Kaiba Corporation. Fortunately the chaos of the last month have kept them totally off balance so they have not done anything yet to implement it."

"Max-i-mi-lian Peg-a-sus" Cynthia hissed, "I thought you said you abandoned that plan."

Pegasus sighed, he hated it when his wife got mad like this, "_I_ did. Unfortunately the people I was allied with have not. This latest development will knock them off balance again but I think they are getting to the point that may take direct and potentially fatal action themselves."

Ranko groaned, "Great as if we didn't have enough on our plate. We now get to play bodyguard to this Mokuba person who according to what we have here became Wiseman in one particular future."

Pegasus smiled slyly, "Don't worry the island of the Duelist Kingdom Tournament will be the perfect place to keep him safe and by having it at the time I originally planned it we can hopefully throw a monkey wrench into Paradox's blackmail scheme," Pegasus then got stern, "But be warned; I will have to appear to play the Big 5's game to the hilt to keep them from guessing that I am really working against them. As I stated there will be new rules in this Tournament and I have decided to add new cards as well. To keep it fair I can only give you the information the other contestants will have as well as a deck of 40 new cards. This deck," Pegasus said pulling out a sealed deck of cards, "will be given by me personally two days hence to the winner of the regional Championship between Weevil Underwood and Rex Raptor. The new rules combined with these new cards will require everyone to rework their dueling strategies."

Pegasus then stood and pulled out two more sealed decks. "These are your additional cards and the new rules," he said pushing the decks toward Yugi and Joey. "A final warning, the player eliminators I will have to use to convince the Big 5 that I am still on their side are largely out and out creeps. Panik is mostly a bully and the brothers Mei and Kyuu cheat on the second part of their test. I know it is not much but it is the best I can do right now," finished Pegasus as he picked up Wiseman's deck and put it in his pocket.

---------------------------------

About a week later Pegasus smiled as one of the Big 5 stated that for their plan to succeed Seto Kaiba had to be taken care of permanently. "Gentlemen I anticipated this and my wife has ensured that Seto Kaiba will bother us no more," Pegasus said pulling out Wiseman's deck and fanned the deck so the Big 5 could see the Blue Eyed White Dragons in it. "She even brought back his deck as proof," The Big 5 congratulated him on his foresight and ruthlessness and let him go the next stage of the plan. Once outside the room Pegasus muttered, "Pity you fools don't realize that the next phase is to get Seto Kaiba to my island as well."

A little later Cynthia met him and asked, "How did it go?"

"As well as getting Mokuba to the island was. Those greedy fools bought the story hook, line, and sinker. How are our future contestants?"

"That is what I came to see you about. That Weevil Underwood got a hold of Yugi's Exodia cards and threw them over the side of the ship!" Cynthia said angrily.

Pegasus scowled "I read in that little slug's mind he was going to cheat. I didn't know he would go this far however. When Yugi gets to the island have Parvati find him as soon as possible with replacements for the Exodia cards he lost," Pegasus then smiled evilly, "Weevil doesn't realize it but he has lost already. If there is one thing that motivates Yugi-boy to win duels it is adversity and with the new cards I gave him he's turn Weevil Underwood into Weevil Underground, six feet underground that is," Pegasus finished laughing.

Cynthia shook her head at the bad joke, "How are our player eliminators handling the new rules and cards?" her husband asked.

"Well they finally got the point where they don't get their clocks cleaned every time they duel. I think the new rules and cards have really shook them up."

"They were supposed to shake everyone up. That was the whole point of them," Pegasus then looked at his wife, "Speaking of shaking things up how is the League of Otherworlds doing?"

Cynthia frowned, "The League of Otherworlds is even more dysfunctional than the League of Nations was. Right now its main function is finding all the groups known about in the other timeline and getting representatives of them. It is going to be a while before it is even remotely useful as a true political entity. Also Sailor Mercury has reported that there is slight increase in ShadowRealm Ki underneath where the Castle goes."

"I figured something like that would eventually happen as no use of energy is one hundred percent efficient and the ShadowRealm beings are living creatures able to generate their own Ki. That is why the Castle moves around over Tokyo in a small circle; it makes it less likely to create a large Ki build up in one area. It also gives us more time to spot and address any potential side effects," Pegasus said.

"We may have another more serious problem. Setsuna said that her probes of the future was picking up energies of what appears to be another Millennium Item here on the island. Unfortunately that was all she was able to get from the Gates."

Pegasus frowned, "The guards on the ship know what Shadi looks like from my painting of him and none of them had reported seeing him. That means we could have another Millennium Item wielder on our hands," Pegasus then put his hand to his chin, "Everything I have been told about Paradox makes me wonder if perhaps the woman is actually suicidal."

Cynthia suddenly turned to her husband in open mouthed amazement as he continued, "Think about it. She could stealthily go about getting playthings for her subjects and yet is flaunting her efforts in everyone's face. From the conversations our friends have related it appears she is moving her base of operations from the End of Time where she was virtually safe to one of the many possible 30th centuries. Finally she has gone after Tea and yet from what we have been told she claims to still have something left of the philosophy of Sailor Moon. I had Setsuna look into the past and she discovered Dark Yugi engaged a gun wielding punk in a duel of life and death because the punk tried to hurt Tea. Obviously the punk loss; burned to death in fact."

"Interesting theory but there is one thing missing from it: Why," Cynthia said "Why would Paradox go to such elaborate extremes if all she wanted to do was kill herself?"

Pegasus smiled, "Remember what Sailor Moon told up about her fight with Queen Beryl? Her friends were dead and she remembered having mortal wounds wishing for a normal life. The Ginzuishou granted that wish but it could not or would not let her escape from being Sailor Moon. What if it will not let Paradox use its power to kill herself or age? Some scientists say the universe has a minimum of 100 billion years of life left. Perhaps that is the real reason the Sanjiyan Unkara created the Ningen No Zou; it was to serve as a way for them to become mortal when the boredom of their immortality got to them. Paradox can't use it because she is a human given a Sanjiyan Unkara's lifespan by the Ginzuishou which they also created."

Cynthia frowned, "While I must admit that it makes sense I just have a feeling there is more to Paradox's latest plan then a desire to kill herself. I mean she must know of timelines that could totally overwhelm her. Why not go to one of those? No there is something else behind all this. The problem is finding out what that something is."

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'A shipfull of people to look for noble dreams in and the first I chose turns out to have the dream equivalent of a sewer.' thought CereCere. 'There is no way Pegasus would hide in that kid's head.' thought CereCere as she left Weevil's room. Walking along CereCere silently tried doors and again lucked out. 'Another unlocked door. Hmmm. pretty lady. Well let's see if her dreams match her looks.' thought CereCere as she opened a dream mirror and looked in. Again she was disappointed, while not the sewer of the last person these dreams were a superficial desire for material things. Unless Pegasus started slumming there was no way he would hide here either, so CereCere left Mai to her selfish dreams.

Walking the deck of the ship CereCere noticed a woman wrapping a boy on deck in her purple robe. 'Certainly someone who did such an action would have noble dreams' CereCere thought as she followed the woman into the hold of the ship where she curled up and promptly fell asleep. CereCere opened a dream mirror and looked in. She couldn't pull himself back out of the dream she found fast enough. Dream? Perhaps sick perverted twisted nightmare was a better description of what she had found. It was like someone had take every noble and pure dream there was, combined them, and then twisted the result into a perverted mockery of itself. Backing away CereCere saw a small old man sleeping beside some crates, certainly such a grandfatherly looking person had pure and noble dreams. Another dream mirror later CereCere stumbled around the hold trying to recover from what she had saw. She knew pure and noble dreams were rare but this was ridiculous. Fatigued from her efforts and what she had saw CereCere herself finally collapsed into a dreamless sleep.

Rex Raptor woke up shortly before sunrise and noticed that he was wrapped in a tattered purple blanket. Curious he unwrapped himself and realized the blanket was in fact a robe. Shrugging and not one to look a gift horse in the mouth he folded the rope up and put it in his backpack.

Down in the hold Paradox stretched and smiled as she remembered her dreams. She checked her bracelet to see if the hologram was still working and nodded. She then pulled out her dueling deck and frowned. Yugi's grandfather had always talked about the heart of the cards and with her skill in Duel Monster just above nil that was all she had to work with - the heart of the three duelists whose decks she had used to make her own. She then noticed Happosai in a corner muttering something out his pretty darlings. Paradox knew from other timelines it took a while for the little pervert to lose energy to where he was largely helpless and she had no desired for her to be near him when he woke up. Somehow the little gnome could sense her when invisible despite the best her pirated technology could do and she did not want to take the chance of him sensing her this close to her goal. Paradox quickly left the hold and mingled with the other duelists.

Two other people were thinking about how close they were to their goal. One was smiling sinisterly from the deck of the yacht he was on gripping his Millennium Rod as the yacht approached the island. The power he had sensed from the building that housed the delegates of the new League of OtherWorlds was incredible. Ishtar Malik figured that certainly that anyone wielding that kind of power would also have the God cards in their possession. Malik's only problem was keeping control over his puppet who actually owned this yacht; it seemed that the closer to the island they go the more effort it took to control his puppet. No matter he simply had to get close enough and he could use the lifeboat on board to go to the island itself.

On the opposite side of the island Malik's sister Isis nervously touched the torque around her neck as she stood on the deck of the battered ship she had rented. She had become worried when her ability to see the future started producing not one image but two. That worry turned into fear when she tried to see the future for the new League of OtherWorlds - that had like being in the electronics section of a department with every TV on and tuned to a different channel. Her fear grew as her probing of the events leading to the Duelist Kingdom Tournament showed her brother Malik approaching the island in the yacht of a man he had turned into a puppet. Her fear then turned to terror as past a certain point she could see nothing; not only for the Duelist Kingdom Tournament but for anything else. Either there was too much for her to handle or more frighteningly there was _no_ future to see. Whatever the cause she had to get on the island and stop her brother.

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Parvati quickly approached Yugi "Pegasus found out what that Weevil creep did," said Parvati all three of her eyes showing her displeasure.

"That little Weevil is a real creep alright," said Joey angrily, "He even claimed he stole the secret rules for the Duelist Kingdom Tournament."

Parvati scowled again thanking Ranma for her martial art training as it was the only thing keeping her temper in check and Weevil Underwood out of hospital. "Sadly without clear proof there is little we can do about that. However we can replace what was taken from you, Yugi," said Parvati as she pulled out five cards.

"Is that what I think it is?" asked Joey.

"Yes Joey, it is Exodia," Parvati said as she gave the cards to Yugi.

Yugi looked through the cards and gave Parvati back one. "Thank you Parvati. Joey was able to save one piece of my Exodia and I can only have one copy of each piece in my deck."

Parvati nodded, "You know ironically with the new cards and rules Weevil did not need to take such actions. The changes make it even harder to put Exodia together."

"Why is it ironic?" asked Tristan.

Parvati laughed, "Because slugs for brains has made Yugi angry with him. Kaiba Seto was the last idiot to make that mistake and look what happened to him," Parvati then smiled in a very unsettling way, "I think I will tag along if for no other reason than to watch Yugi pound Weevil into worm food."

Back at the castle the Harpie Lady Skyfeather was following Mokuba around. Mokuba was not happy about the situation that led to him to being here. First Pegasus sets up some shady deal with the Board of Directors of his brother's corporation and then realizing what a blunder he had made Pegasus up and decides to protect him by bringing him to this island and have ShadowRealm being guards around him. Mokuba did have to admit however that both the ShadowRealm beings and the people who summoned them were friendly enough. Skyfeather in particular was comforting in that she did not have the same will less expression the other ShadowBeings did. Finally Mokuba arrived as his destination - the area known as the lower arena.

Carved out of stone the lower arena as it was called was huge, twice the size of the hologramic arenas on the island. Pegasus revealed that it had been originally designed for a recreation of the original Shadow Games. With the revival of his wife Pegasus had allowed Ranma to turn the place into a sparring arena. Pegasus had convinced whose he had enlisted in his quest for ShadowRealm power to accept these Shadow Matches by letting them watch one; Pegasus pointed out that sparring with ShadowBeings caused their power and by extension whoever they followed to increase.

Right now there were five such ShadowBeings active: Skyfeather (Harpy Lady), Neo Thundersteel (Neo the Magical Swordsman), Gep (Mysterious Puppeteer), Liltha (Dark Elf), and the first monster Pegasus himself had summoned Atlant (Aqua Madoor). As far as the robed followers were concerned the reason there were only five was so they could better learn the new rules of the Shadow Matches. However Parvati had confided that the real reason there were only five active on the island was mainly due to the League of Otherworld which floated over Tokyo. They had all felt that until they had a better grasp of ShadowRealm Ki and its effects it was best to keep the number of additional recruits to a minimum. Another fact Parvati kept hidden from the acolytes but confided to Mokuba was that Skyfeather had actually sparred at the Tendo dojo regularly largely because she had been the first ShadowBeing to show genuine self will.

Watching intently chanting were the robed followers. Mokuba shuttered a little as these guys gave him the major creeps especially with their chant about soul sacrifice granting them power. Mokuba took some solace that he had the one ShadowBeing with true self will guarding him. On one side of the arena was Pegasus himself activating his Red Archery Girl card. "Hello Mokuba, taking a tour of the castle I see."

"Creating more guards for me, Pegasus?" asked Mokuba in an annoyed tone as the chanting continued in the background. Personally if he had to have a guard he would prefer it to be Skyfeather but even she had to rest and train. Perhaps Pegasus had figured out a way to make another self willed ShadowBeing.

"Actually only one new guard with this new magic card Power of Tao I just added to the game. Unlike Polymerization it allows me to create a fusion of monsters opposite to each other. And if my theory is right I will create the second most powerful creature in Duel Monsters," Pegasus said laughing. "The only problem is I am not a martial artist so I have to use the energy of two lower level monsters to bring anything level 7 or higher on to the field. Normally I would only use the cards at my disposal but there is card I require that I do not have a copy of. Fortuity Wiseman's deck does have the required card so I can go forward with this plan,"

Mokuba frowned as Pegasus activated Muka Muka then Armed Ninja and finally Rogue Doll. "Who is Wiseman? One of your Player Eliminators?"

"Hardly, little Mokuba," said Pegasus "He was one of the people exiled from Earth by Neo-Queen Serenity. I suspect his hatred of her combined with the energy of the Dark Crystal kept his soul from leaving his body, at least until Paradox pulled his soul of his body killing him."

"So who was Wiseman?" Mokuba asked as Pegasus pulled out two more cards.

Pegasus smiled. "When I tribute these four monsters to bring forth my two level 7s you will know. This level 7 is from my stockpile of cards. I tribute Red Archery Girl and Muka Muka and summon the Dark Magician."

Mokuba watched as Red Archery Girl and Muka Muka faded form the arena replaced by Dark Magician as Pegasus frowned, "You know in Greek mythology when Pandora's box was opened it was said Hope was kept in the box. But think about it; how could something kept in a box give people hope? The answer is it couldn't. What gives people hope is ignorance of the future and that was the final demon kept in Pandora's box," Pegasus then looked at Mokuba a sad expression on his face, "Wiseman was from only one future; there are many others. Are you sure you want to meet Pandora's last demon?"

"Cut the dramatics, Pegasus; I want to know," yelled Mokuba.

"As you wish. I tribute Armed Ninja and finally Rogue Doll to summon the Blue Eyes White Dragon!"

Mokuba stared at the ShadowRealm being in front of him as Pegasus put down the final card, "I use the Power of Tao and fuse the Dark Magician and Blue Eyes White Dragon to form the Gray Dragon Wizardess."

Pegasus and the robed figures shielded their faces with their arms while Skyfeather used her body to shield the shocked Mokuba from the wind that erupted. When it died down there stood a figure in a gray version of the Dark Magician outfit but the being in the outfit was a humanoid female version of the Blue Eyes White Dragon. Pegasus looked down at the new card and broke into hysterical laughter, "It worked better than I could have ever dreamed. I have created something that can bring even the powerful God cards to their knees," Calming down Pegasus smiled, "Mokuba, may I present your new guard the Gray Dragon Wizardess, Mayuan."

"My brother, my brother was Wiseman," said Mokuba finally.

Pegasus sighed deciding that the truth needed to be told, especially as that truth would give his robed followers a sense of respect regarding Mokuba, "Mokuba you saw what Paradox did to Yugi's grandfather, right? I suspect the same thing happened to the bother of Wiseman via Neo-Queen Serenity and it was that action that pushed him over the edge into insanity turning him into a mass murder."

"My brother would never do anything like that," yelled Mokuba angrily.

Pegasus tossed Mokuba Wiseman's picture locket. "Wiseman had that around his neck. I hardly think your brother would have kept a picture of himself. No the only answer that makes any sense is that _you_ were Wiseman."

---------------------------------

Parvati smirked as Weevil led them to a clearing. If Yugi was anywhere as good as she figured he was he already had worked out why Weevil had lead them to this particular area. Parvati frowned and wondered just how good Weevil really was if he had to resort to cheating as Yugi stated that they would use Tournament rules but only 2000 life points.

"Why should I agree to such terms?" asked Weevil.

"Because if you win you get not only my two star chips but my dueling deck as well."

Weevil smiled, "You'd risk your grandfather's deck under the new rules with a fourth of the life points allowed? That will just make squashing you that much easier so I agree. Let's duel."

Parvati smiled as Weevil's level 4 Killer Needle and Yugi's level 3 Mammoth Graveyard canceled each other out. When Yugi informed Weevil on how he figured out the land rules Weevil just laughed saying he knew all the secret rules. Parvati herself then laughed, "Yugi, I betting this baka is expecting his knowledge of the secret rules to allow him such easy victories that he forgot to pay full attention to the new _public_ rules."

Nodding Yugi pulled another card and smiled at it. "I play Sorcerer of the Doomed in attack mode, this card face down, and activate the field magic card Blight Upon the Land."

"My forest, what is happening to my forest?!" screamed Weevil as his hologramic forest started turning brown and dying.

"Parvati was right, you were so busy looking for ways to cheat you didn't pay full attention to the new rules that were made public," said Yugi folding his arms, "Otherwise you would have known about the new field magic cards. Blight Upon the Land turns the _entire_ field into dark wasteland giving all Dark, Fiend, Zombie, and Rock Type monsters a 300 point field power bonus."

Weevil scowled, "I'm no novice, Yugi; and I don't need my field power bonus to beat you. I play this card face down and this one as well."

Parvati frowned, 'Not good. If I remember correctly Weevil's specialty is insect cards and there is one insect card that could wreck some havoc on Yugi's monsters and it is a flip effect card to boot. And the second card has to be a trap or magic card.'

Yugi pulled his next card and smiled again, "I play one monster face down in defense mode, this card face down, and end my turn."

Weevil smiled "I play Larva moth in defense mode and equip him with the Cocoon of Evolution. In four turns he will undergo a startling transformation and change from harmless caterpillar to Great moth and lay waste to your monsters and life points."

Parvati shook her head, "You are gloating like a villain from one of those bad US horror films of the 1930s. And like them you will be defeated in the final reel. That is assuming you last to the final reel."

"Hardly," said Weevil smugly, "I flip over Attack Paralysis to put Yugi's Sorcerer of the Doomed in defense mode. I then turn over my face down monster to reveal Man Eater Bug who immediately consumes Yugi's face down monster and that ends my turn."

Parvati growled, "Yugi is in trouble. Attack Paralysis is the reverse of Defense Paralysis. As long as it is active Yugi cannot attack and he has only two cards in his hand."

"Is that one of the new cards?" asked Joey.

"No," said Parvati frowning, "Attack Paralysis is from the original rules, though it is still a royal pain to deal with even under the new rules."

Yugi drew his next card "I play Pot of Greed which allows me to draw two more cards. I now play Dain Keto the Cure Master which raises my life points to 3000 and tribute Sorcerer of the Doomed to bring forth Summoned Skull."

"If he could attack I would be worried," smirked Weevil as he drew his next card. Laughing maniacally Weevil proclaimed, "With this card I will send your Summoned Skull to the Graveyard, I call forth Jirai Gumo to attack Summoned Skull."

"You forget about my face down card Weevil," said Yugi in calm tone, "Castle Walls will add to my Summoned Skull's defense by 500."

Weevil laughed "Even with your field power bonus and Castle Walls, Yugi your Summoned Skull only has a defense of 2100 still less than Jirai Gumo's attack of 2200. So what if I have to risk half my life points to attack? He will still crush your Summoned Skull like so many dried bones! Attack roulette go."

Parvati grinned like a cat who just caught the canary. "Why you smiling Parvati? That jerk is about take out Yugi's monster," asked an annoyed Tea.

Glancing over at Joey whose face suddenly got an expression of stunned realization Parvati said, "Your friend Joey has just realized the same thing I did and..," Parvati then laughed, "Well look at that it landed on a skull. Now the fun really begins."

Weevil's jaw dropped as his Jirai Gumo disappeared into hologramic powder and his life points went down to 800. "What happened?!" he screamed echoing Tea's and Tristan's thoughts.

"Care to explain Joey?" chuckled Parvati.

"It has to do with the card rulings that were also sent to the contestants," said Joey smiling at Weevil's confusion. "The bonuses granted by Field Magic cards are _cumulative_. In other words if a Field Magic card's effects match a monster's attribute _and_ subtype then the monster gets the bonus twice."

"I get it," said Tristan, "Because Blight Upon the Land effects Dark and Fiend monsters and Summoned Skull is both his attack and defense were increased by 600 not just 300."

"Right Tristan" commented Yugi as he pulled a card from his deck, "I play this card face down and end my turn."

Drawing a card Weevil smiled, "I tribute my Man Eater Bug and summon Kwagar Hercules. I will also equip him with laser cannon and finally blast your Summoned Skull off the field."

Yugi watch frowning as his Summoned Skull disappeared and drew his next card and broke into a smile, "This may come as a shock to you Weevil, but after finding new ways to cheat all you have found is a new way to lose."

"What are you talking about?! I just blasted the toughest you monster had on the field and you have don't have enough monsters left to tribute for anything powerful enough to stand up to my Great Moth even if they could attack. All you can do is delay my pounding of your life points until my Great Moth springs forth in two turns," fumed Weevil.

"You just drew one of the new cards didn't you?" asked Parvati.

"Yes I did," said Yugi as he slapped the card down. "I activate the quick magic card Poison of the Old Man and choose the direct damage option which takes out 800 of your life points."

Weevil stood there in shock as his life points went down to 0, "I didn't even get my moth out," he wailed. "This cannot be happening. I am a Regional Champion," Weevil groveled on the ground as Yugi collected the two star chips.

"You won your duels and got your title by cheating. Real duelists fight with honor," said Yugi as he tossed the two star chips up and down in his hand.

"Don't pay attention to this dueling disgrace, Yuge. I herby confiscate his dueling gauntlet."

"Just be thankful for the behavior you showed here that as an official of the Duelist Kingdom Tournament I don't confiscate your dueling deck and have you _row_ back the mainland," said Parvati angrily as she noted one of the human guards approaching, "Get this excuse of duelist out of my sight," she said to the man.

A few minutes Parvati was still trying to reign in her temper, "I cannot believe that jerk," she muttered. "Even when we first met for all his flaws Ranma at least had a code of honor he followed and a deep desire to help others. Weevil was a bigger jerk than my brother ever could be and nothing to off set that fact."

"Don't let Weevil get to you, Parvati. He only cared for the prestige he got from winning no matter how he did it," said Joey.

Parvati chuckled, "In short he was a selfish little twit."

"You got that right. Now let's see about finding somebody decent to duel with."

---------------------------------

"You want to duel for half of our star chips, Contra?" asked Mai.

"Yes, Mai. The eight I already have puts me at an advantage. You have four. Given the uniqueness of my deck I believe it is only fair. Besides I only need two more to enter the Castle," said Contra. 'There is no way she could know that I simply went to several timelines and obtained the star chips from when a guard threw them away into the ocean and that she is my first real duel.' thought Contra aka Paradox.

Mai considered the offer and nodded as the arena surfaced, "Standard Tournament rules then, Contra."

Paradox nodded, "8000 life points. Four star chips for two," she said as she and Mai drew their five cards.

"You go first," said Mai not even looking at the cards she drew.

'I knew from the timelines I got the star chips from she was good but she is a little cocky to let me go first without even looking at her cards.' thought Paradox as she drew her first card and smiled at what it was. "I play Mysterious Puppeteer in defense more and these two cards face down. That ends my turn."

Mai nodded drawing another card without looking at closed her eyes and put her hands over her cards, 'What is she doing? I sensed no magic about her and saw nothing in the other timelines to suggest she had any kind of mental powers.' thought Paradox. Opening her eyes Mai smiled "I play this card face down and Harpie Lady in attack mode" Mai said flipping one of the cards and blinked as Paradox's life points increased to 8500. "What just happened?" Mai asked.

"Mysterious Puppeteer is one of the new cards. It gives me 500 life points for each monster summoned to the field by either player," said Paradox as she thought 'I knew I should have gone further back and watched the duels before those chips were thrown into the ocean. Right now the only thing keeping Mai from turning my Mysterious Puppeteer into Harpie Lady kibble is that in defense mode my Sojan field offsets her Mountain field bonus and I have a face down card. However I doubt that is going to last long. I better make the most of him while he is still out there.' thought Paradox as she drew her next card and flipped over one of the face down cards saying, "It's a real barrel of laughs with this trap card, Ultimate Offering. For 500 life points each I can do one extra normal summons, but thanks to Mysterious Puppeteer each additional summoned monster gives me 500 life points so each extra summons is actually free. This combo is a real laugh riot when you draw something like this card, Pot of Greed," finished Paradox as she put the card down and drew two more cards bringing her hand back up to five cards. "I summon Beaver Warrior in defense mode and use Ultimate Offering to summon Wall of Illusion and Green Phantom King in defense mode. That ends my turn and puts me at 9000 life points."

Mai frowned at the card she just drew. The more monsters that they both summoned the more life points her opponent got. The obvious solution was to take out Mysterious Puppeteer but with a face down card she could not just blindly attack. "I equip Harpy Lady with cyber shield and play these two cards face down."

"If I might ask why do you duel, Mai?" asked Paradox as she drew her next card.

Mai smiled, "For the prize money of course. To be able to get all the things I want without really working."

Paradox frowned looking at her card, "I see. That sounds like a very shallow reason to me. I duel not for the money or title but for my subjects; regardless of if I win or loose they will be the winners," Paradox then said "I tribute Beaver Warrior and Green Phantom King to set this level 7 monster and use the 500 life points to tribute Mysterious Puppeteer and Wall of Illusion to set this level 7 monster."

Mai frowned, this was getting serious. She drew a card and said "I play this face down and use Elegant Egotist to special summon Haprie Sisters in addition to my Harpie Lady already on the field.

Paradox pulled another card and smiled, "I have to admit Mai that the name I gave you is a play on the one I normally use. Contra Dickson is a corruption of the word contradiction which is a synonym for Paradox. The nice thing about being a time traveler is any card even unique ones can be in your deck. By the way you should feel honored Mai your harpies are about to get turned into feather dusters by a combination of the favorite cards of the three best duelists there ever were," Paradox said as she played the card she had just drawn and turned the other cards over.

In the Castle Pegasus was talking to Mokuba who was still a little out of it at finding just who they thought Wiseman had been. Suddenly a buzzer alarm went off. "What's going on?" asked Mokuba.

"Since that time traveling lunatic was trying to blackmail Yugi and his friend Joey into letting her have a Shadow Game with their friend Tea I thought it would be wise to set my monitoring system to look for any unusual cards and we just hit the mother load," said Pegasus as he punched up a dueling arena screen. "Good heavens. It looks like that megalomanic is using our own decks against us!" exclaimed Pegasus pointing to the screen, "The Dark Magician from Yugi's deck, the Blue Eyes White Dragon from your brother's deck and Toon World from mine," Pegasus then gave a rich deep laugh, "That combo may have been near unbeatable under the old rules but if this Mai Valentine is as good as I have heard we are about to watch Paradox get slapped around thanks to the new rules and cards."

Back at the field Mai laughed, "You know I was annoyed that Pegasus so drastically changed the rules and added cards to the game like crazy but now I am glad he did. Otherwise I would not be able to wipe out your monsters. Your attack activates my trap card Waboku which nullifies your attacks. Now I use my turn to first activate Despell to take out your Toon World followed by Raigeki which destroys all your monsters, Third I increase the number of my Harpies with another Harpie Sisters. Finally comes Megamorth card I just drew which since your life points are more than mine doubles one of my cyber shielded Harpie Sisters to 4900 and now all my monsters attack taking out your life points."

Paradox just stood there shocked for a moment and then shaking her head sat the four star chips aside, "Well that didn't work the way I planned at all. Looks like I am going to have to go over the alterations Pegasus did in greater detail. Thanks for the lesson in humility, Mai," said Paradox as she stepped down from the platform, "You know, Mai, I have wealth and power that make all the kings of earth look like paupers and it has not made up for the fact that I have outlived my family and _all_ my mortal friends," Paradox said her back to Mai, "There are just somethings that all the power and wealth there is cannot buy," Paradox said sadly as she walked away.

Mai walked over and picked up the star chips. Something in the woman's voice worried her. It was like the voice of someone who had nothing left to live for. No, the pain was greater than that. Mai realized with a shock there had been no life in Paradox's movements during the entire match, no real excitement even when Paradox had thought she was about to win. Paradox was not living in any normal sense of the word; she was existing and she more wealth than Mai could likely dream of. Mai sat down on the edge of the dueling arena and started rethinking her own priorities.

Rethinking priorities and strategies was high on the list of Pegasus's things to do. The Big 5 would of course want Yugi to face Paradox for if Yugi lost they got Kaiba's corporation. They were perfectly willing to kill Seto and once his usefulness to them ended Mokuba as well so that the likely reason for such a duel would be to prevent a young girl from spending the rest of her life as a rape toy for a bunch of lust demons wouldn't bother them in the least. Pegasus shook his head and wondered just who was more the inhuman monster here Paradox or the Big 5 and where his own morals had gone for him to ally himself with such people.

Watching Paradox use a card that could only have come from his brother's deck had snapped Mokuba out of his state of emotional shock and got him worrying about his brother. Pegasus told him that they had let Seto 'find' information that Mokuba was being 'held' here at Duelist Kingdom and that the people behind this thought that Seto was dead. Pegasus had decided that the best way to keep tabs on what Seto was doing was with a ShadowBeing as he really could not trust any of his men. The transformation of Hiroshima and Nagasaki gave Pegasus a lot more flexibility as to what he could have follow Seto and keeping tabs on his was critical to keeping the Big 5 in the dark as to what was really going on.

Back in Tokyo enlightenment was the order of the day. Nabiki and Ling Ling were both bringing the cash hand over fist. Nabiki's only problem was than in about three weeks time she would be back in school relegated to doing smalltime stuff for much of the day; it was hard to go back to that after rubbing shoulders with some of these important people but there was nothing to be done for it.

Meanwhile in the Castle itself Ke Lun and Choukai meanwhile were both carefully monitoring the ShadowRealm Ki that the Castle was pumping into the environment. They had also elected to find out the long term effects of exposure to such Ki by living in the Castle. Other then picking up ShadowRealm Ki neither had noticed any effects but then again they had only been up here for a week. They had agreed that the delegates and staff for the League of OtherWorlds would be housed in the Sazan Palace. Unlike the UN the main function of the League was to give a place where the various nations of the world could come to establish treaties and trade agreements. Eventually far down the line the League would be absorbed into the UN but right now getting the League up to speed was the order of the day.

The biggest problem was that even in the other history most the peoples contacted were of the demon variety. The only sizable group of deities that had been found had actually been gathered together centuries earlier on Olympus by Apollo in his search for his fellow Olympians. And what a ragtag group it was, Loki along with the Norns (Verdandi liked how the Japanese did her as Belldandy) and few minor Norse deities, Ishtar (who made Aphrodite look like a prude) along with her fellow Babylonian the dragon goddess Tiamat (who seemed to continually swing from praising and wanting to hurt some mortal named Gygax), Egyptian deity Set who had become of all things a Taoist and his somewhat confused sister/wife Nephthys, and of course Apollo and what few of his pantheon he could find. The story they all told was much the same - they went on some journey and when they got back their fellow deities were gone. Strangely the lower realms had not been disturbed - King Hades still ruled Tartarus with Persephone (who wondered what happened in the brief six months she had been gone) and Hel still ruled her kingdom while the warriors of Valhalla basically did what they always did - kill each other, get brought back to life, party like a bunch of college kids, and then do it all again the next day. Choukai shook his head. There was no way that this bunch of dysfunctionals was in any condition to represent Earth so it had been back to the idea of getting human representatives without the League turning into a defacto duplicate of the UN and that goal was turning out to be way more complicated than first expected.

---------------------------------

When Ranma had started his training journey his goal had been simple--be the best martial artist of his generation. However Parvati, Pai, and Ranko had shown him that there was far more to that goal than his father had taught him. Simply giving some long important name to what was really a simple technique or using such obvious methods as saying 'Hey look isn't that...' in the middle of a battle as his counterpart did was not going to mean squat against some of the foes they could be facing.

With her time travel stunts Paradox had shown Ranma how one's views filtered the events around them. The Grandmaster and General Yamoto both viewed their worlds as better and grander than this one and yet it was clear there were many flaws they either could not see or worse _would not_ see. The battle of the Valkyrie Warriors had shown that some of the dark views of the Fuhrer had been woven into the Grandmaster's Ganso Musabetsu Kakuto Ryu. General Hitler had warned in his book _Unser Kampf_ that the concept of racially pure superman could be replaced by the continually improving martial artist, the concept of conquest could be replaced by protection, and intolerance toward the different could be replaced by intolerance toward any form of racial, social, or cultural purity. From what Ranma had saw he strongly suspected that Grandmaster walked that path. General Yamoto of the SDK praised the Ganso Musabetsu Kakuto Ryu and its sister Ryu even as much of eastern Asia continued to mired in what seemed like one bloody war after another for 40 years.

No like himself had done they were looking at their respective worlds from their point of view unable or unwilling to step back and see if they were really being objective. If _Unser Kampf_ was any guide of the people Ranma had met General Hitler seemed to be the only one to be able to step back and really look at a situation. Even though the book was a strange mixture of Social Darwinism, Taoism, and Immanuel Kant topped off with a heavy dose of Sun Tzu it was not a hard book to read. In fact the book was so rich as to be read on many different levels: a commentary on Nationalism and ideas in _Mein Kampf_, an example on how to use martial arts in statecraft, a demonstration of how one person can change a whole society or even a world, and so on. Right now Ranma was thinking about the preface of the book: "In the end my sensei Saotome Ranma didn't stop us from being fanatical or crazy, he just gave us something better to be fanatical and crazy about."

That Paradox was both crazy and fanatical Ranma had no doubt. In reading the source material Ranma felt he had glimpsed on a part of Paradox's mind in the writings of Sun Tzu--'Appear at places to which he must hasten; move swiftly where he does not expect you. Probe him and learn where his strength is abundant and where deficient.' While Pegasus saw possible evidence of possible suicidal tendencies in Paradox's actions Ranma saw equally strong evidence of a larger plan. But as with Pegasus's theory Ranma's had a hole and it was also from Sun Tzu--'Subtle and insubstantial, the expert leaves no trace; divinely mysterious, he is inaudible. Thus he is master of his enemy's fate.' Paradox was about as subtle as a mallet upside the head, left traces of her actions all over the place like a puppy that needed to be trained to go on the paper, and was constantly yammering away when she made one of her grand entrances.

Tea had for whatever reason became a target for Paradox and the more Ranma thought about it the more he realized that it just did not fit. In fact Paradox's whole attitude toward the Inners did not make sense. They had been her best friends so why on Earth did she talk occasionally about her subjects having their way with them? Ranma frowned, something about that felt familiar but he couldn't... then his eyes widened as both he and Ranko suddenly realized why it felt so familiar. Ranma rubbed his head as he got up to find Cynthia and her husband Maximilian and tell them his theory. If his theory was right than Paradox's moral compass was more screwed up than Ryoga's sense of direction when he was in warm water form.

---------------------------------

Tea and her friends choice of direction had been rewarded as they had found a dueling arena. However the person there was sitting on the edge of it in deep thought. Tea walked up frowning and kelt next to the blond haired girl, "Hi I'm Tea. Are you all right? You look like you lose a duel," Tea said softly.

The young woman's head snapped up and she smiled sadly, "Hello I am Mai and no I didn't loose a duel but what my opponent said afterwords set me thinking about why I am dueling. I had told her during the duel I wanted the prize money to get all the things I desired without having to worry about working for it. She said that was a very shallow reason and then pulled a combo using the favorite cards of the three best duelists there ever were. When I beat her she said that she had wealth and power beyond all the kings that ever were but none of it could bring her friends or family back. I never heard a voice to full of pain and also so empty at the same time as Paradox's at that moment."

"PARADOX?!" exclaimed Tea and her friends.

"You know her?" asked Mai.

"Unfortunately we have had the displeasure," said Joey angrily, "That time traveling psycho wants Tea to play her in a Shadow Game and was trying to use my sister's failing sight and the soul of Yugi's grandfather as blackmail to get it."

Mai frowned, "Could you explain that in better detail?" she asked. Joey then gave a recap of their encounter with Paradox and the terms of her Shadow Game. By the time Joey was done Mai felt ill and was shaking like a leaf.

"If I had lost then..," she started.

"Then nothing," said a voice that sounded like running water. Turning the group saw Atlant the Aqua Madoor his faceless mask and long clawed hands adding to the imposing nature of his figure caused by his long sea green robe and sea blue hair fluttering in the soft breeze. "Ranma came up with a theory about why Paradox is after you Tea and it is one that makes a frightening amount of sense."

Parvati put her hand to her chin, "Well let's hear it."

"Paradox has lived with lust and another demons for millennia. What if she has forgotten how to properly interact with human beings? What if she has forgotten that while she may like that kind of attention that it is not normal for most women? In short what if Paradox has decided she needs a human friend again?"

"Atlant, just how many times did Ranma get hit in the head before coming up with this?" asked Joey, "Because that has got to be about the nuttiest idea I have ever heard. How could anyone think that being a plaything for a lust demon was normal?"

"How could anyone consider lopping off the heads of captured prisoners as a sport?" countered Parvati scowling.

"Look Parvati just because you have lived 300 years doesn't mean that you or your brother can dredge up examples out of the ancient past to excuse Paradox," fumed Joey.

"We are not trying to **excuse** anyone," Parvati said angrily, "My brother was simply trying to understand what is motivating Paradox," Parvati then walked over to Joey opening her three eyes her battle aura flaring into existence, "And I would hardly call 40 years ago in a place called Nanping, China the 'ancient past,'" she said glaring at Joey, "Oh that is right in _this_ history you Japanese stuck your heads in the sand and ignored details of your history like that along with the comfort women, Baatan, and the rest."

Joey and Parvati glared at each other until Tea pushed her way in between them using a staff in her fight hand to separate the two. Parvati's expression changed to one of shock, "Tea where did you get that staff?"

Tea looked at Parvati and noticed a staff topped with what looked like a crescent moon in her right hand. Curious she pointed her staff at the ground and her Takuhi suddenly appeared cocking its head in puzzlement. "Parvati, " said Tea softly "what is happening to me?"

Parvati frowned, "I don't know. That was similar to a Sanjiyan Unkara summons but this staff," Parvati said running her hands over it, "is a ShadowRealm construct."

"Parvati, am I still human?" asked Tea frightened.

Parvati backed up in surprise at the question and narrowing her eyes turned her attention to Tea's aura. Parvati frowned as she related what she saw, "Tea, your Ki aura has accumulated a complex mixture of Sanjiyan Unkara and ShadowRealm aspects but it is still human. What worries me is that these changes extend into your very soul and that should not happen at all."

"Which means exactly what?" asked Joey.

Parvati sighed, there were times when she really hated this, "Simply put, while Tea is currently human she is changing. Into what I have no idea."

---------------------------------

Pegasus still had no idea as how he was going to meet the Big 5's request for a third Eliminator to face Yugi. He had briefly considered getting the dark part of Seto Kaiba from the ShadowRealm but given how hard Mokuba was taking the idea that in at least one future he had become Wiseman Pegasus quickly dismissed that idea; Mokuba had enough problems dealing with his own inner darkness without facing the dark part of his brother. Besides thanks to the new cards and rules just as had been true of Panik and the MeiKyuu brothers the dark part of Seto would likely get plastered all over the dueling arena. While Ranma and his sisters had learned a lot about the new version of Duel Monsters they were nowhere in the class of Mai, Rex, or Yugi.

As he walked pass sitting room of his castle Pegasus heard the deep voice of Panik, "Castle of Dark Illusions in defense mode."

"Very good my love but don't forget like you I too thrive in darkness," responded Liltha's amused tone. "I play Witch of the Black Forest in defense mode and the field magic card Yami to add to the fun."

Curious Pegasus looked in and saw Panik and Liltha playing a game of Duel Monsters. One thing they had discovered with the ShadowRealm beings was they had a deep knowledge of Duel Monsters. As a result Ranma had summoned Liltha as an advisor to help Panik improve his skill and Panik and Liltha had hit it off. In fact Pegasus couldn't envision Panik without Liltha at his side. As he watched them play Pegasus nodded; this was something he had not considered--a ShadowRealm being as an Eliminator. Quickly returning to his room Pegasus pulled out Wiseman's deck and one of the sealed Tournament decks. He had the cards and an idea on who to use them. The only problem was how to present the whole thing so the Big 5 would buy it. Then an inspiration hit him and he went to talk his plan over with this wife and Mokuba while they had lunch.

Ukyo looked up from her grill and saw some new customers. Leave it to Ramchan to point out a key flaw with Duelist Kingdom--other than the castle there was not one place to eat on the island. From Pegasus' projections the whole Tournament would at best last a week so her little place was nothing fancy. Pegasus had decided to pay her directly rather than worry about the duelists remembering to bring money to buy food with. But Ukyo was not just here to serve the duelists okonomiyaki, she also kept an eye out for people who did not belong here. Thanks to a laptop computer from Hiroshima Ukyo was also the place of last appeal if a duelist claimed their starchips had been stolen; as the rule book had explained only duels in the arenas counted and as Weevil had demonstrated there would be those that would cheat.

So far Ukyo had granted one appeal and discovered no less than three non registered duelists. Pegasus had decided to let the Tournament weed them out; if they were any good they would get the castle and if not then they were no concern. So far no one matching the description of Conrta Dickson had appeared but then again Paradox could have brought enough food with her that she didn't need to come here to eat. Ukyo smiled as she spotted Parvati, that meant among the group she was with was Yugi and she had some good news. "Hello Parchan, having fun?"

Parvati smiled, "Sure sister. Let me introduce you to my friends Yugi, Joey, Tea, Tristan, and Mai."

"Pleased to meet you, I am Ukyo," Ukyo then pulled out a pencil, "I imagine that you want to share a super size okonomiyaki. By the way Bellerophon says that Paradox has returned what she took."

"Who is Bellerophon?" asked Joey.

"It's a code we all worked out in case the Big 5 had hacked into the Industrial Illusion communication system. In Greek mythology Bellerophon was the person who captured and tamed the flying horse Pegasus," said Parvati.

"In short Bellerophon is really Cynthia Pegasus, right?" asked Tristan.

Parvati responded by smiling and tapping her finger to the side of her nose, "My dear Tristan that is a secret," Parvati said giggling while everyone else groaned, "Seriously you are right, Tristan. However the Big 5 are not our only problem. I am seeing far more ShadowRealm Ki than can be accounted for by the beings we have summoned and I sense no evidence of a rift so that means we have at least another Millennium Item around."

"You mean that Shadi creep is here?" fumed Joey, "Where is he so I can deck him?"

"As far as I know nobody has seen Shadi and from what I saw from being around Yugi and from our encounters it appears that each Millennium Item has a slightly different Ki signature. I have not sensed the type ShadowRealm Ki I senced in Shadi. So we likely have another Millennium Item owner about," said an elderly voice.

Parvati started rubbing her head, "I was afraid of as much, Happosai."

"We may have another problem," said the diminutive martial artist as he hopped into an empty chair. "During the trip here in my dreams I saw what looked like a circus performer. Normally I would have dismissed it but something just does not feel right about the dream."

Parvati frowned and after looking at Happosai for a moment muttered something under her breath. "Someone accessed your dreams, and from what Choukai described what he found examining the body of Mu Si I say it was someone similar to the person who killed Mu Si," Putting her hand to her chin and looking at her friends at the table Parvati said, "May I examine your auras?" After everyone nodded Parvati examined each person's Ki aura. When she got to Mai she frowned again, "Mai has the same evidence in her aura as Happosai does. This raises the ugly possibility that in addition to Paradox and an unknown Millennium Item owner we could have a being that kills through dreams running around loose on this island."

Happosai frowned, "If it is similar to what killed Mu Si than we have a new and worrisome mystery. Why am I and this woman still among the living while Mu Si is dead?"

Parvati thought and quietly said, "In the demon realms there are subgroups of some types that can only get nourishment from a limited portion of what their fellows can. For example there are vampires that can only feed on the blood of warriors or Guki that feed only on certain types of music. Perhaps our dream killer is a particular subtype, in other words it only kills people with certain kinds of dreams. However that is of no use to us because without knowing what the criteria is, everyone on this island is in danger."

"Correction, Parvati. _Nearly_ everyone on this island is in danger. This woman and myself seem to be on the being's leave alone list."

"Point made but I do not like the idea of there being an unknown Millennium Item wandering around this island and its owner doing who knows what. If not for the absence of ShadowRealm Ki in you or Mai I would wonder if our dream killer and unknown Millennium Item owner were one and the same person. If she has not already I want Setsuna to look as far back as she has to and find out just who created these items and for what purpose. If we have _that_ piece of information we may have a better idea on what we are up against."

---------------------------------

Maximilian and Cynthia were wondering if looking for the origin of the Millennium Items had been that good an idea as Setsuna looked horrid as she sat down. "Maximilian, Cynthia what I have to tell you is anything but pleasant," Setsuna said her voice wavering. "Let me begin by explaining how the Ningen No Zou works. When the Sanjiyan Unkara created it they put a little pit of their Ki into it. Each use added more Ki until after centuries of uses the Ningen No Zou became the powerful artifact it is today able to transform one form of energy into other," Setsuna paused and sighing continued, "The Millennium Items were an attempt by those in Ancient Egypt at creating something like a Ningen No Zou. The problem was they were created in part as a response to a possible immediate invasion which means the creator did not have centuries to power up the items and so used something akin to the old activating method of the Kunlun vessels."

Maximilian Pegasus narrowed his right eye, "Kunlun vessels were originally activated by a blood sacrifice."

"If only the method used was so benign," Setsuna said sadly, "This method was more along the lines the methods used by the Aztecs to placate their sun god, Tezcatlipoca."

"My dear God!" said Maximilian Pegasus softly, "You are talking about _human_ sacrifice."

Setsuna nodded grimly, "It gets worse. The entire population of a village called Kuru Eruna was massacred and their remains mixed with the gold used to create the Millennium Items," Setsuna then steepled her hands as both Pegasi turned green, "but here is the weird part; the soldiers proclaimed they were attacking on the orders of Pharaoh Akunamukanon."

"What?! But Setsuna from what Egyptologists know there was no Pharaoh named Akunamukanon!" fumed Maximilian Pegasus recovering a little.

"And they are right," Setsuna said leaning forward, "Every time I tried to scan history for ShadowRealm energy I kept hitting a wall about 1340 BCE near the end of the reign of Amenhotep IV aka Akhenaten. Frustrated I finally decided to use the Time Gates combined with Ningen No Zou to follow the Millennium Items you and Yugi have back though time to the point of their creation. Which is how I found the events I have just related."

Maximilian frowned as his right eye looked down at the table before him, "So are you telling me that the Millennium Items are no more part of this world's history than the Moon Kingdom was?"

Setsuna shook her head, "I only wish that was the case. No the reason I could not see anything was someone had put up a barrier preventing me from sensing the Millennium Items from the timestream. The Pharaoh's name was proclaimed as the solders slaughtered the people so I think that was a ruse to prevent any possible survivors from cursing the Pharaoh as the ancient Egyptians believed a person's name had power. The problem is every time I try to look past that point I run into that blasted temporal wall again. However I was able to see briefly a book used to create the items and it radiated Sanjiyan Unkara magic. I think that the name I caught before the Time Gates flaked out on me was _Book of Gods and Demons_."

Maximilian tapped his finger on the table, "If this barrier is as powerful as you say..."

"How was I able to break it? In a sense I didn't--rather the combination of the Ningen No Zou and the Time Gates allowed me a punch a narrow hole or "window" if you will in the barrier. And I think that only happened because the Millennium Items are a flawed version of a Ningen No Zou," Setsuna slumped in her chair, "My main problem is figuring out how I break this news to Yugi."

"NO!" Maximilian Pegasus said slamming his hand on the table. "You are **not** to tell Yugi about this until you have learned more," Maximilian waved his finger at Setsuna, "It is exactly that sort of shortsighted thinking that created Kaiyanwang Paradox and I will not allow you or anyone else to go off half-cocked like some Hollywood cowboy and risk creating something just as dangerous in _this_ timeline."

Setsuna let her head fall to her chest and chuckled, "You are right. Tsukino Usagi was an innocent until my counterpart pushed her over the edge and if we handle this wrong we could turn Yugi into something just as bad. At least Paradox returned Yugi grandfather's soul, which I might add kind of deep sixes your suicide by proxy idea."

"So what exactly _can_ I tell my sister when Yugi is around?" said a voice from behind a curtain.

"Ranma, just how long have you been there?" asked Setsuna putting her head into her hand and shaking it.

"Long enough to understand why there seems to be a _human_ soul in the Gray Dragon Wizard," said Ranma as he moved from behind the curtain.

"Did you say that my new fusion monster has a _human_ soul?!" asked Maximilian in shock.

"Yes, she does," Ranma said frowning as he walked up and put his hands on the table, "at least in part. If not for the example of Skyfeather I would wonder if that is the reason she has self will," Ranma then sat down and the four of them started hammering just what to tell Yugi and how to get the rest of the information to Parvati/Pai.

Meanwhile Mayuan was having her own set of problems. The last thing she remembered had been giving up her soul to create the Blue Eyed White Dragon for the young man who had saved her life. Now here she was in a strange land with even stranger people commanded to protect the young boy named Kaiba Mokuba beside her. As she walked through one of the rooms with Mokuba something caught her eye. On one of the tables was a finely detailed painting with strange writing superimposed on it, but it was the subject of the painting that startled Mayuan; while he was wearing strange clothes it was definitely the young man who had saved her life.

"That is my brother Seto," said Mokuba. "I will be glad when he gets here and we can stop playing this cloak and dagger game with the Big 5."

"He is your brother?" asked Mayuan.

"Yes. Maximilian Pegasus says the Big 5 are getting nervous and we need a display of an Eliminator trying to defeat Yugi while Seto makes his way here to distract them. He has decided that you will be that Eliminator and that you will make your dueling deck from these," Mokuba as he gestured to a sealed deck and Wiseman's deck. As Mayuan sat down the buzzer alarm went off and the lights flickered. Frowning Mokuba ran over to a table and pushed a button on a box. "Maximilian Pegasus, what is Paradox up to now?"

"It's not Paradox. Someone else just used one of the God cards in a duel," came a worried voice from the box.

"Pegasus, just what _are_ the God cards?"

"The God cards are three unique cards without which the game is not complete. In a way the God cards are the key that unlocks the full power of the Millennium Items and as such they were heavily protected. In fact I had several researchers die or go insane in their efforts to recreate the blasted things. I finally did recreate them but then I had the granddaddy of nightmares and decided to scatter them around Egypt," said the voice from the box which was followed by a female voice that said "You created overly powered cards and then let them back out into the world? Maximilian Pegasus no baka."

Mokuba shook his head, "Maximilian, the changes you have done to the game. Did they change the power of the God cards."

A laugh emanated from the box, "Certainly. But your guard is possibly the single most powerful thing against the God cards. That is why I gave her the name I did. But even without her card Wiseman's deck combined with the sealed deck I have provided has nearly everything she needs to pound the stuffing out of any of the God cards."

"Nearly everything?" frowned Mokuba, "What is it missing?"

"The same thing Paradox's deck was missing. You can have the best designed deck in the world but if you don't have good skill you cannot use the deck to its full potential. If we are lucky it may take a while for Paradox to understand that. Otherwise even with the new rules Yugi is going to have problems because part of his deck makes up hers."

Elsewhere Ishtar Isis was watching Yugi duel a boy named Maco with interest. 'Maximilian Pegasus' alterations have totally changed the way the game works.' she thought.

"The sea demands respect," said Maco as he played his Giant Jellyfish.

"Well said. It is a rare privilege to meet someone who truly understands my element," said the watery voice of Atlant.

Isis suppressed a shutter. Going to the ShadowRealm was one thing; bringing beings from it to this world was something else. Until the situation with the League of OtherWorlds she would have not considered such a thing possible. Now here she was watching a normal duel with a Aqua Madoor standing beside her. She watched as Yugi used Despell on his own Mystical Moon card beaching Maco's creatures and winning the duel. Maco took it in stride and Atlant offered any help he could in finding the boy's father who had disappeared in a storm years ago. Isis nervously fingered her torque as Parvati and Joey talked, "Exciting Duel wasn't it, Joey?"

"Exciting and at times a little nerve wracking," said Joey as Parvati laughed.

"When you live forever boredom is a real problem and I must say that I prefer nerve wracking to boring any day of the week."

"Yeh, yeh your people being used as the foundation of the deities of the world must have made things real boring," said Joey.

Parvati shook her head smiling, "I will admit that some of us likely played on others viewing us as deities or demons to the hilt but I was never one of those. Quite frankly the first 50 years of people either running away screaming or falling down in worship whenever I opened our third eye was annoying at best. At least I can mingle with mortals, there are some of us that can't. For example, if the physical descriptions are correct then of my Egyptian brethren only Isis didn't I believe the phase is 'stick out like a sore thumb'."

"I guess I am luckily that whatever I am turning into at least _looks_ human," said Tea sadly, "It would be hard for be to continue to fit in if I had the head of an animal or green skin or something like that."

"Green skin? Tea, Parvati is a Sanjiyan Unkara not a Namik out of DrazonBall Z," said Tristan half jokingly.

Parvati laughed, "Tea is talking about my cousin Osiris, Tristan. According to the descriptions the Egyptians gave he did have green skin though in all other respects he simply looked like an athletic human."

"Tea we're not going to stop being your friends just because you are changing into something else," said Yugi.

"I don't think that is what is worrying her. Is it Tea?" asked Parvati frowning.

"No it isn't," said Tea sadness in her eyes, "What if whatever I am turning into has a much longer lifespan then humans normally do? Will I see you and any other human friends around me grow old and die before my eyes?" Tea said looking at Yugi.

"I know what you are going through, Tea believe me," said Parvati solemnly, "It is ironic that so many people want to be immortal but that is because most never really think it through. Eventually you would run out of new things to do and wind up existing rather than living. I think that is why my people created the Ningen No Zou--as a way to get out of the immortality they were born with."

"Parvati, look, there is Mokuba with two duel monsters and Ranma. I recognize the Harpie Lady beside him but what is the other monster?"

Parvati rubbed her jaw, "I have no idea, Joey. I have never seen that one before. Obviously female. Dressed like the Dark Magician but those wings denote her as some sort of dragon," Parvati then smiled, "Look at her eyes; she is like Skyfeather totally self willed," Walking up to the ShadowBeing Parvati bowed slightly "Excuse me. My friends and I were wondering what you were."

The dragonoid smiled, "I am the Gray Dragon Wizardess, Mayuan," Mayuan then looked at Yugi, "This is the one who beat your brother in a duel?"

"Yes, he is," Mokuba said.

"I am intrigued in your skills, young one and I want to see how good mine are as well. Shall we?" Mayuan said gesturing to the arena behind her.

Joey blinked, "But you are a Duel Monster!"

Parvati shook her head, "Actually the correct term is ShadowBeing, Joey,"

Mayuan smiled, "I sense that what you say is correct. Which should make our duel that much interesting. "

Dark Yugi surfaced, "I accept."

"Don't underestimate her Yugi," warned Ranma as the two players go into position. "Pegasus got this idea when he saw Liltha and Panik practicing. Mayuan has a natural aptitude for the game that more than makes up for her lack of skill."

"Very true, Ranma, but Yugi has faced the deck I am using before though I have made some improvements," Mayuan said smiling.

Ranma watched the duel while Ranko studied Yugi's aura as he dueled Mayuan. 'Thanks to the information Setsuna provided I can now make sense of Yugi's aura. It is in fact two auras, each representing a different soul.' Ranko thought to Ranma.

'The second soul being in the puzzle?' asked Ranma mentally.

'Yes. Ouch, Sagi the Dark Clown just took a bite out of Yugi's life points.' commented Ranko.

'True but Mayuan made a mistake in using a combination of the Negative energy generator and Yami to increase Sagi's attack strength. Yugi's strongest cards are both increased by Yami which includes his favorite, the Dark Magician.' Ranma smiled slightly, 'Yugi likely suspects whose deck Mayuan is using but until she actually uses one of the three cards unique to it he cannot be sure.'

'That was cute. Using Soul Exchange allowed Yugi to get Summoned Skull on the field and Sagi off of it. Had to give up an attack to do it though.'

"Well played, you're as good as Mokuba indicated," Mayuan said as she drew another card, "I play the magic card The Flute of Dragon Summoning which allows me to special summon up to two dragon cards from my hand and I use it to summon forth two Blue Eyed White Dragons."

"What?!" yelled Joey, "That means that is Kaiba's deck!"

Yugi drew a card and smiled, "Actually it would be more accurate to say that is Wiseman's deck, but even with the new cards and rules it is still vulnerable to Swords of Revealing Light."

Mayuan pulled a card from her deck chuckled, "Quite true, Yugi; but I can still set monsters some of which have powerful flip effects. I play this face down and end my turn."

Yugi nodded and drew another card, "You are correct that many of the new cards Pegasus added were effect monsters but he also added new spell and trap cards as well. I play these two face down."

Mayuan nodded as she looked at her new card, "Yes including this card," she said showing it to Yugi.

"Ground Collapse!" exclaimed Yugi frowning.

"Huh? What does that card do?" asked Joey.

"It eliminates two monster zones from being used. That means that as long as it is out there Yugi can only summon three monsters total," said Parvati.

Yugi smiled, "I activate Massager of Peace and play Queen's Double in attack mode."

"My master would have been frustrated if that combo had existed when you dueled him for tearing up your grandfather's Blue Eyes White Dragon. Messager of Peace prevents all monsters with an attack of 1500 or higher from attacking and Queen's Double is one of the few monsters that can attack life points directly. It is nearly as bad as having a Crush Card. Fortunately I made additions to his deck."

Ranma studied the rest of the duel as Yugi and Mayuan traded pleasantries. It was certainly a different dueling method than Panik or the MeiKyuu brothers used and Ranma found it more to his liking. Panik's posturing annoyed him and the MeiKyuu brothers habit of talking in rhyme drove him and Ranko nuts. Ranma knew from Liltha training Panik that a ShadowRealm being's knowledge of the game was strongest in their type and attribute. Mayuan was a dragon/spellcaster with both the light and dark attribute which gave her the widest amount of innate knowledge in the game of any single monster. Ironically while the 'Heart of the Cards' helped Yugi it had from what he was seeing had hindered Mayuan. Ranma nodded, from what he had seen Seto/Wiseman's deck had been built around the philosophy of raw power; get enough power over your opponent on the field and then pound the stuffings out of them. Mayuan had expanded Wiseman's deck along those same lines and it was hurting her.

Ranko mentally chuckled 'Yugi just played Mysterious Puppeteer. I think that is going to be one popular monster.'

Ranma nodded recalling that when Pegasus had brought up the record of Paradox's duel it had showed she had played that card as well. Given the access to all the timelines Paradox had it was unclear just when she had gotten the three decks she had had made to make her own. She seemed to know about some of the new cards but not others. Ranma than noticed Yugi putting Mask of Accursed on each of the Blue Eyes Dragons still out. 'Ouch, that means she is losing 1000 life points until she can get rid of those things.' mentally commented.

"You are good, Yugi but time to end this. I activate the Trap card Imperial Order," said Mayuan flipping over a card.

"My masks and Massager of Peace!" exclaimed Yugi as the hologram images broke up, "What have you done?" Yugi demanded.

"Imperial Order neutralizes all spell cards. As long as I can pay 700 life points neither one of us can play any kind of magic card," Mayuan then leaned forward and yelled, "Let's clear the field of those annoying monsters shall we? Blue Eyes White Lightning attack!"

Yugi smiled, "You are not the only one with trap cards. Mirror Force!"

"My Blue eyes!" yelled Mayuan as the lightning attack came back and blasted them from the field.

"Now to truly end this, I tribute my face down card for another Summon Skull and attack you with both which reduces your life points to zero."

Mayuan nodded, "Very good, Yugi. You have won and shown that your defeat of my master the first time was not a fluke but a testament to your skill."

Dark Yugi frowned, "You keep referring to Seto as your master. But he could not be the one who summoned you."

"Seto. Such a strange name my master now uses in an equally strange land," said Mayuan wistfully, "The truth is Yugi that like you I was born human but I was strange looking by the standards of my people and when a illness struck I was blamed. Seto saved me from being stoned to death. Later I found that my Ka and Ba would create a powerful guardian for him. It was the least I could do in repaying his kindness to offer my life and soul to form his guardian the Blue Eyes White Dragon," Mayuan then opened her wings, "Thanks to the magician called Pegasus I have been given an even more powerful guardian form to protect my master's brother Mokuba."

"Ka and Ba? Are those something like Ki?" asked Parvati puzzled.

"It is more along the lines of Hun and Po', sis. Only in the ancient Egyptians concept has what we call the soul broken up into seven parts," said Ranma his chin resting on his hand, "If you are interested sisters I believe Pegasus can fill you on the details and you can likely make more sence out of it than I could."

Parvati nodded, "Perhaps that is a good idea. I have been out of touch for a while and I imagine that Pegasus has some new information for me. Besides the Big 5 might start getting edgy if I stay with Yugi too long."

"The Big 5. That is your term for those who plot against my master," said Mayuan her voice and eyes cold. Turning toward Ranma she cocked her head to one side, "You said you are each other's Wu. What _is_ a Wu?"

Parvati smiled, "Very simply put a Wu is a type of guardian. Different from you obviously but a guardian none the less."

"My sister and you can compare details on the way back to Pegasus'... palace," said Ranma chuckling.

Parvati nodded interested in her brother's choice of words, "Come Mayuan. We can exchange some ideas and knowledge."

Ranma smiled as Parvati, Mayuan, and Mokuba left talking to each other. Parvati was becoming less distant less cold toward others regardless of their mortal status. "I must say that was an interesting duel. I will be glad when Seto gets here and we can focus on dealing with the Big 5 rather than doing this smoke and mirrors stuff."

---------------------------------

CereCere was watching from a distance as she saw two duelists finish their duel. She had figured out that the dreams these people had revolved around this contest. CereCere could not believe her luck; the mortal humans would do her work for her. All she need to wait until the finalists entered the Castle and go through their dreams. Best of all the duelists thought she was something called a ShadowRealm being and she pretty much had full run of the island. CereCere looked into the sky and nodded. It would be a while before it got dark; more than enough time to see some more duelists and their dream mirrors eliminated.

Ranma watched as the run set in the west frowning. Ukyo little restaurant closed at sunset for the simple reason that aside from the arenas and Castle there were no lights on the island. It was easy enough to get turned around on the island in the day time so going any long distance at night was definitely not a good idea. Of course Ranma was wondering if this whole idea of playing around with the Big 5 and Paradox was a good idea. Not only did they have them to contend with but it seemed as if a whole bunch of other problems had come out of the woodwork. That the dream killer was here was bad enough and despite the presence of one of the three God card keys they had decided to get out every ShadowRealm being related to dreams or protection they had. Unfortunately they had worked from the assumption that there had only been one additional Millennium Item on the island. The way the ShadowRealm Ki of the island had rapidly spiraled up indicated that they in all likelihood had no less than five Millennium Items on the island. Things were rapidly spinning out of control and all they had was the vaguest idea what would happen if it all hit the fan.

His own life being out of control he could handle; this was different and dangerous. Misused the Ningen No Zou could destroy the world and since the Millennium Items were a flawed attempt at creating a Ningen No Zou the same applied to them. Of course Ranma had figured out that Parvati had spoken figuratively; for all its power the Ningen No Zou simply did not have the ability to turn the Earth into another asteroid belt like Sailor Saturn could. No the real danger from the Ningen No Zou was its ability to permanently breach the barriers between Inner Worlds. Without those barriers the people of Earth would be at the mercy of beings from other realities some of whom were not careful on how they treated their 'toys'.

Ranma shook his head and started thinking about the minor issue of what the little group was going to eat in the evening. The only one who brought anything was Tristan and his brainstorm had been a book about getting food from nature. That was fine provided you had enough light to go and find food. Then there was the little issue of what kind of food the book provided. Even with his Wu/Sanjiyan Unkara ability to eat nearly anything the thought of dining on earthworms was not high on his list of things to do. Ranma walked back to the group and they set down trying to figure out what to do.

While they talked Mai showed up. Turned out the girl had planned better than most of the other duelists and brought her own supplies. "Well I am glad somebody else planned ahead," commented Ranma as he went with Yugi to gather firewood.

Mai looked down at Tea, "You know there is a portable shower set up right over there. Just because you hang out with those boys doesn't mean you have to smell like them."

"You know Mai that sounds like something I would say. About as subtle as fishing with dynamite," said Ranma as he started breaking up the log he had brought.

"Don't you think you over did the firewood, Ranma?" asked Tea.

"Possibly but one thing I learned being around Pops is that you could never have too much of anything. Especially as he tended to steal anything that wasn't nailed down and then look around for a crowbar to pry up the stuff that was," Ranma paused and looked out into the darkness around them. "Skyfeather, what brings you out here?" Ranma asked casually.

The Harpie Lady walked into the clearing, "Skyfeather wanted to see how Tea doing. Like fellows and yet not like them. Very confusing," Skyfeather then walked up to Mai and smiled, "You specialize in our type of ShadowBeing; Skyfeather impressed by your skill."

Mai was taken aback. It was one thing to see her favorite card as a hologram but this Harpie Lady was a being of well flesh and blood. Yet Mai did not feel afraid for some reason. Reaching out she touched Skyfeather's wing. "Mai like Skyfeather's plumage? Sparring with Ranma make Skyfeather stronger than other Harpie Ladies. Nearly level 5," Skyfeather said cooing softly as Mai ran her fingers through the feathers of Skyfeather's wing. Mai had long considered friends as being an impediment to her winning duels but now she was not so sure. Paradox had seemed so empty and Skyfeather on the other hand so full of life. While Mai was sorting out her thoughts she noticed the sound of a helicopter.

"I should have known. That guy has an ego nearly as big as mine use to be and I should have figured he'd be this flamboyant," sighed Ranma shaking his head as the copter settled down in a clearing. The young man that stepped out was an older version of the picture he had seen in the locket from Wiseman's body. "Hello Seto Kiaba. Bout time you got here, what kept you?" quipped Ranma.

Seto narrowed his eyes, "You are Saotome Ranma the martial artist who found a way to cause Duel Monsters to appear in the real world."

Ranma shook his head, "Actually Kaiba the only reason that worked at all was due to the fact that Duel Monsters is based on something called the Shadow Games created some 3000 years ago, Pegasus-sama is a walking storehouse of ShadowRealm Ki thanks to his Millennium Eye, that energy went into the cards he handled, and my martial arts Ki techniques were able to activate that Ki," Ranma pulled out his dueling deck, "Without ShadowRealm Ki and a method of awakening it this is simply a deck of cards."

"Well regardless of how it is done I am not going to let anything get in my way," said Seto.

"Calm down Kaiba," said Ranma briskly, "I know that right now Pegasus is high on your 'who I want to introduce to Mr. Pain' list but this was the easiest way to minimize the damage from events he had originally set in motion," Ranma nervously scratched his head, "I fully admit that it was likely on par with some of Pop's original ideas when he was training me but we didn't exactly have time to come up with something better."

"Ranma is right," said a female voice. Everyone turned and was greeted by the figure of Cynthia Pegasus, "Just as you would go to any lengths to protect your brother my husband was willing to go to any lengths to bring me back from the dead."

Seto stepped back slightly, "Bring you back from the dead?"

Cynthia nodded, "From what he was told the Millennium Items combined with your hologramic technology would have been able to bring me back. Thankfully for all of us another method was found. Though" Cynthia continued looking at her left hand "there have not been some complications."

Ranma frowned, "I take it your are not talking about our Big 5 Kiaba Corporation problem."

"No I am not," Cynthia said as she walked up to a tree and punched it. Ranma and the others blinked as her arm went deep into the wood. "How bad?" asked Ranma.

"Not as bad as it could be. I am just incredible strong. You are going to have to train my husband soon Ranma otherwise we are going to have make some adjustments to our... love life," Cynthia said blushing red as a beet as she pulled her hand from the tree.

"I'll see what I can do once we have dealt with the Big 5," said Ranma angrily, "Those maniacs are way too ruthless for my tastes and the sooner we shut them down the better."

Cynthia nodded extending her hand "Come Kaiba-san. It's time to get you reunited with your brother and afterward my husband can go over just what your Big 5 were planning. Besides," Cynthia smiled, "the ShadowRealm being that is now guarding your brother wants to meet you."

Ranma watched as Seto and Cynthia walked in the direction of the Castle, "Seto reminds me of the way Pops raised me. Never depend on anyone but yourself. Don't show your emotions as it is a sign of weakness. I suspect that to some degree his childhood was as messed up as mine was," Ranma then shook his head, "Aggh, enough of that. Tea why don't you and Mai clean up while I help the outdoorsmen here heat up the food."

Several minutes later Mai was watching the little group cook while Tea got ready to shower. Beside her stood Skyfeather, "Ranma live on road with father for years. Use to ruffing it. Should be good food," Skyfeather said turning her attention to Mai. "Ranma said father only focused on making him good fighter. Father not allow Ranma to improve other skills. Skyfeather follow Ranma's advice; do other things beside duels. Skyfeather would like to be Mai's friend."

Mai looked into Skyfeather's green eyes. There was an eagerness to them and yet a tinge of loneliness which finally caused Mai to made up her mind. "I would be honored to call you my friend, Skyfeather."

Skyfeather smiled and gently hugged Mai cooing. Mai stroked Skyfeather's long red hair thinking about how it smelled like fresh lilies. 'Here I thought that being a duelist would mean forgetting about being friends with any fellow duelist. Now here I am friends with someone who is more a duelist than even the great Seto Kaiba could even dream of.'

"Eeepp," came Tea's voice from the shower

"What is it?" asked Mai breaking out of Skyfeather's hug.

"I hear rustling out there," said Tea covering herself with the towel Mai had provided.

Poking her head through the back part of the shower Mai looked into the inky darkness, "Well there is no one there now," she said.

Skyfeather closed her eyes and sniffed the air, "Just because Mai not see them does not mean they are gone," Skyfeather opened her eyes and moved away from the shower to one of the edges of the camp. "Come out, whoever you are. Skyfeather can smell you even if she cannot see you."

From the inky darkness stepped a young boy with white hair his eyes showing a kind of sadness. "Hey, its Bakura. And here I thought we might have something to worry about," said Joey.

Everyone finally sat down to eat. "So Mai, how many star ships do you have? Eight or nine?" asked Yugi.

"Don't think you can fool me with that nice guy routine, Yugi," said Mai sharply. "When we get to the Castle it is going to be every duelist for themself."

"Mai," said Ranma an edge to his voice, "That sounds like something my father would have said and I can tell you personally from 10 years of living that way it stinks. Friendships, social skills, and showing emotions were the short list of distractions in my father's eyes and anything that distracted from the Art was to be avoided or discouraged. If not for a fluke in this history I would have been little more than a living weapon. There are some advantages to sharing your body and mind with another person," Ranma chuckled tapping his head, "While she can be quite naive at times, even my sister Pai has no misgivings about this Duelist Kingdom Tournament. Just because I am good friends with Pegasus doesn't mean he will hold back in a duel with me any more than my friends Ryoga or Akane would hold back in a sparing match. I imagine Yugi didn't hold back when he was teaching you, Joey did he?"

"You got that right. But if he and his grandfather hadn't been tough I would not have the skills I do," said Joey.

"Exactly my point. Neo-Queen Serenity tried to make a perfect world in one particular 21st century by removing everyone's evil. She seemed to have forgotten that being a true friend means that you accept a person's bad points along with the good," Ranma sighed, "Which is partly why I think Paradox is behaving like she is. She is exaggerating her bad points in an effort to drive away anyone who would even think about becoming her friend because I think deep down she realizes that her moral compass is totally messed up from her living with lust demons for centuries on end."

"Personally I think the simpler explanation is that Paradox is just plain nuts," commented Joey.

"You know why don't we have a game not for starchips but some fun," said Bakura, "and to make it all like we are playing why doesn't Yugi use our favorite cards.

"Sounds like a plan," commented Ranma holding up a green card with picture of a martial artist on it, "Especially as Pegasus and I wanted to do some more field testing of my favorite card the Wily Sensei which I tried to base on a more honorable version of Pops."

"Well my favorite card is Cyber Commander," said Tristan.

"Nothing beats Flaming Swordsman," said Joey acting like he was cutting into something with a sword.

"Dark Magician hands down," said Yugi.

"Obviously Harpie Lady," smiled Mai as Skyfeather nodded.

"Magician of Fate," said Tea as she thought 'especially as it seems that I can some how summon her staff.'

"And I add my favorite card Change of Heart."

Everyone watched as their favorite card were put into Yugi's deck. "There is a little something I want to share with you all but Yugi especially," said Bakura as she he held he hands in front of him chanting something.

"I don't like this," commented Joey as something appeared around Bakura's neck. "That's a Millennium Item," said Yugi as Bakura looked up, "Yes it is and now to take us to the ShadowRealm."

Once in the ShadowRealm everyone except Skyfeather collapsed. Skyfeather started shaking Mai trying to wake her up as Bakura walked over to Yugi and reached down to get the Millennium Puzzle. But before he got far he found himself staring into the eyes of a very pissed off Ranma. "Alright mind explaining just what the blazes you think your are doing?"

"Claiming the Millennium Puzzle," said Bakura a little unnerved at the fact that Ranma was up and about.

"If you want my Puzzle that bad you are going to have to play me for it. As well as release my friends," said Dark Yugi.

"I agree to your silly request. But I should tell you this is a Shadow Game you cannot win," said Bakura with a wicked gleam in his eye.

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[Author's note: In the anime unlike the actual card game Elegant Egotist is a continual rather than normal magic card, cyber shield is used by all the same monsters, and Toons are immune from direct attack as long as Toon World is out on the field.


	26. Chap 26 Virtual Certainty

Chap 26 Virtual Certainty

Ranma 1/2 is the creation of Rumiko Takahashi, 3x3 eyes (Sazan Eyes) is the creation of Yuzo Takada, Sailor Moon is the creation of Naoko Takeuchi. There are also a few other characters from other anime which belong to their respective creators. All are used without permission. This fan-fiction isn't intended for commercial use but is rather a tribute to Ranma 1/2, 3x3 Eyes, and Sailor Moon.

The moment Ranma and Ranko had been pulled into the ShadowRealm they knew something was way wrong. The place just did not for a lack of a better term feel right. But before they could get much further than that Ranko suddenly found herself alone in Ranma's body and angrily facing Bakura who had just proclaimed he and Dark Yugi were to play a Shadow Game. "Have you lost your mind Bakura? Thanks to a few miscalculations this island already has enough ShadowRealm Ki to power the entire planet for a week and you want to add more by having a Shadow Game?!" fumed Ranko, "It just might be all this place needs to turn it into what the Sazan Ryu calls a 'bridge domain'--an area where two normally separate worlds permanently coexist!"

"As a stealer of souls that is not my concern. Gathering the Millennium Items is all that matters and I have done terrorable things to obtain them."

"So was Pegasus planning to do before we helped him." said Ranko as she narrowed Ranma's eyes, "It is a little hard to see through Ranma's eyes but I have to guess you are a spirit that resides in that Millennium Item."

Bakura smiled sinisterly, "So right you are. Shall we begin our duel, Yugi?" he said gesturing to the stump where a dueling placemat sat.

Yugi nodded and sat down while Ranko and Skyfeather looked on "Skyfeather not like this."

"Neither do I. Not only do I feel helpless but this whole ShadowRealm feels wrong. I have a feeling that no matter who wins this Shadow Game everyone will lose."

"I play Cyber Commander, Tristan's favorite." said Yugi who stared in surprise as Tristan appeared from the card.

"Kuso. The spirit in that Item has a power similar to that of Pegasus's Eye." grumbled Ranko, "He can pull out souls or at least part of souls and put them into other objects."

"That mean Mai and others like Skyfeather?"

Ranko frowned, "That is one way to put it. What concerns me right now is that I can see that the ShadowRealm Ki here is actually less than outside. If this Shadow Game goes on too long the barrier between the ShadowRealm and Earth at this location will totally collapse which could in theory turn the entire island into a 'bridge realm' and I don't think this world is ready for one of those."

"Tristan!" yelled Yugi as the White Magical Hat defeated Cyber Commander, "What happened to him?!"

"Why what happens to all defeated monsters. He got sent to the discard pile or Graveyard as we call it in Duel Monsters." said Yami Bakura. "Also because the White Magical Hat damaged your life points you must discard a card from you hand.

Yugi frowned as he discarded a card and drew his next card, he then smiled "I play Flaming Swordsman and the magic card the Wily Sensei."

"Huh hey Yuge. Whaaaa." said Joey as he looked at Yami Yugi.

"Yugi, what is going on?" asked Ranma in annoyed tone.

"Your souls were sealed inside your favorite cards. Ranma has become the Wily Sensei and you Joey have become the Flaming Swordsman."

"I've become the what?!" exclaimed Joey while Ranma put his head in his hands.

"Listen to me Joey. If I am to restore everyone I must defeat him, but if you lose this battle you will go to the Graveyard just like Tristan did."

"Here I am six inches tall wearing a dress holding a sword about to fight my giant friend? This is nuts!" grumbled Joey.

"That is not really Bakura. An evil spirit from his ring has taken him over." said Yami Yugi.

"That's just great." ranted Ranma, "I don't know if you are any relation to that Mistress 9 thing that possessed Hotaru but I am getting tired of you I want to possess a human today so I can do my evil plan types. Why don't you guys go possess something more on par with your intelligence, say a hamster? No I take that back, that is an insult to the hamster." quipped Ranma.

"I have seen too much in the last couple of weeks to think I have gone nuts so I'll just go with this little piece of weirdness. Say good bye to the cat in the hat." said Joey as he took out the White Magic Hat while Ranma and Ranko both winced at the word 'cat'.

"Make all the insults and jokes you want little men, it still will not save you." snarled Yami Bakura as he played a card face down.

"I wonder why he played that card face down." muttered Yami Yugi.

"Because he is afraid of what the Flaming Swordsman will do to it. Hey what gives with the arm lock?" said Joey as Ranma ran up and restrained Joey.

"Because you are acting like I use to do which means odds are you are about to do something royally stupid." said Ranma angrily, "Calm down and _think_. There are several reasons to set rather than summon a monster and none of them are good for us. Big Yugi, my card is like a beefed up Ultimate Offering. If you have any normal trap cards in your hand they can be activated directly for 500 lifepoints."

"Then I use 500 of my life points to play Ceasefire." said Yami Yugi revealing the face down card as Morphing Jar. "Now my Flaming Swordsman attacks your neutralized Morphing Jar."

Ranma smirked at Yami Bakura as his life points dropped to 6400, "Just wait my card has a lot of other fun surprises in it."

Yami Bakura growled as he set the card he just drew face down. "I have surprises of my own."

Yami Yugi paled at the card he drew next. "Let me guess you just pulled your favorite card." said Ranma. "1000 life points allows you to normal summon level 5 and higher monsters without a tribute."

Yami Yugi nodded. "Then I use 1000 life points to summon the Dark Magician with no tribute and I play this card face down."

Yugi blinked, "One moment I was up there the next I am down here..."

"I am going to bash myself some Bakura." fumed Joey.

"No, Joey, I was summoned so I attack first. Dark Magic Attack!" exclaimed little Yugi, "Oh no another Morphing Jar!"

"That's alright Yug, I nearly did the same thing." said Joey

Ranma sighed, "He's right Yugi don't blame yourself. Without something to nullify it he would have just activated it later, possibly when some of our other friends were in Big Yugi's hand. Besides," smiled Ranma, "he has left himself open to attack by Joey's Flaming Swordsman."

"Hey that's right!" exclaimed Joey as he jumped up and shoved the sword into Bakura's side of the field causing Bakura to wince in pain.

"In way you should be thankful that we decided to have duels on this island at 8000 rather than the old 2000 life points." smirked Ranma, "That little number did 3300 life points of damage to you. You are now at 3100 while Big Yugi is at 5500."

Yami Bakura scowled, "Perhaps but with each hand come a new perspective and new dangers," he said playing two cards face down and Massager of Peace face up.

Big Yugi frowned, "I play Harpie Lady and use the Wily Sensei to set an extra monster for 500 life points as well as play a card that brings back monsters from the graveyard. Monster Reborn." said Big Yugi as both Mai and Tristan appeared. "I also play this card face down."

"What's going on?" asked Mai looking down at herself "What is with the Harpie Lady make over?" she said looking at one of her wings while Tea crawled out from under her card.

"Yugi and Bakura are giants battling for our souls." said Joey.

Mai frowned looking at Ranma, "You mean Yugi is like Ranma and Ranko with one part up there while the other part is down here?"

"Something like that Mai. However that is _not_ our biggest problem. Whatever magic transported us into the ShadowRealm was not designed for the conditions that now exist on this island. If this duel goes on for much longer the barrier will collapse which could turn the entire island into what is known as a 'bridge domain' an area where two normally separate worlds permanently coexist."

"That sounds like a bad thing. So what is going on?" asked Tea looking at her staff.

"So far Bakura's deck seems to be along the lines of what Pegasus called a deck burner." said Ranma frowning, "Simply put it is designed to cause you to burn through your cards faster than normal. The one good thing is that Bakura has already used his two allowed Morphing Jars so we know that set monster is not another one. The main problem is to save all of us Big Yugi has to keep us all out of the Graveyard which royally screws up normal playing strategy. Now with Messenger of Peace out no monster with an attack higher than 1500 on either side can attack; Tea's card has been set not summoned so that leaves Mai and Tristan the only monsters able to attack."

Mai frowned, "Then I'll risk it. Harpie Lady talon attack!" The card flipped over revealing itself to be Electric Lizard. "That wasn't too bad. Arggghh!" said Mai as she curled up in pain.

"You cannot attack Electric Lizard without some shocking feedback." gloated Bakura. "Any more heroes? Well then I set this Man Eater Bug, activate the magic card Dian Keta the Cure Master, and flip over this card to give you a better perspective on your dilemma. Just Deserts."

Bakura smiled wickedly as a hand came out of the card and grabbed big Yugi, "Just Deserts takes 500 life points from you for every monster summoned to the field and it will feel as if every point is torn from your beating heart."

"Big Yugi!" yelled Tristan.

"He is not the only one in trouble. We have to get rid of that Man Eater Bug. Unfortunately unless Big Yugi has a better trap card in his hand the only thing we have is that." Ranma said pointing to the face down card.

"But that card requires the sacrifice of a monster to activate." said little Yugi.

"Well here goes. Yaaaa." yelled Joey as he jumped on the Man Eater Bug card, "Activate the trap card Big Yugi. I don't want any of my friends hurt." yelled Joey as he rode the Man Eater Bug like a bucking bronco.

"I'm activating a trap card sacrificing my Flaming Swordsman to do so. The Horn of Heaven. Its celestial sound blasts your Man Eater Bug from the field."

Bakura smirked. "True but you had to send one of your friends to the Graveyard to do it. You have already used your one Monster Reborn card so you cannot bring him back and soon the reaper of souls will claim him."

"I wouldn't gloat. Monster Reborn is not the only card that bring back monsters from the Graveyard." smirked Ranma.

"He sacrificed himself to save us." cried Tea her tear falling on the card she was standing on causing it and her to glow.

"Tea's tear activated the effect of her favorite card." said Big Yugi. "It allows one to retrieve one magic card from the Graveyard. And I choose Monster Reborn."

"It did more than that Big Yugi. It changed the very nature of the card Tea's soul was sealed into. It is no longer a level 2 attack 300 defense 400 monster." said Ranma nervously as he looked down at the card Tea was standing on "It now says, Sazan Sorcerous, level 7 attack 2500 defense 2100. What in the world? Her stats are now _identical_ to the Dark Magician's and her effect has changed."

"It does not matter as Yugi has wasted his time and turns saving you mortals." Yami Bakura gloated.

"My friends are never a waste of time," said Big Yugi angrily as the area around them started to shift.

"What is happening?" yelled Yami Bakura.

"What I tried to warn you about, you gloating buffoon." scowled Ranma as he and Little Yugi faded from view and the others grew jumping or falling off the placemat as they returned to their original size. "The barrier between Earth and the ShadowRealm finally collapsed." continued Ranma now back in his body. "This is now no longer a Shadow Game but what in another world I call a Shadow Match and you will find the rules are _very_ different."

"NO! I will not lose!" yelled Yami Bakura. "I play the Lady of Faith in attack mode and play the magic card Change of Heart."

"Isn't that Bakura's favorite card? asked Yugi.

"And a very magical card it is. With this card you will destroy the very friends you sought to protect." smiled Yami Bakura.

"I refuse." said Yugi angrily.

"You will have little choice in the matter. Change of Heart allows me to control one opposing monster and I choose you little Yugi."

"You can't you egotistical baka. In case you haven't noticed Little Yugi has merged back with Big Yugi. There is no Dark Magician for you to take control over!" yelled Ranma.

"I don't believe you!" screamed Yami Bakura as the two cards disappeared replaced by a life sized version of the Lady of Faith and another Bakura.

"We should have known." scowled Ranma, "Bakura was sealed within his favorite card as well."

Bakura shook his head and merged with the Lady of Faith "We must hurry. I've taken over one of his cards instead of yours. You can defeat the evil Bakura but you must attack me."

"But that would destroy your card and send you to the Graveyard." exclaimed Yugi worried.

"It's better than being enslaved by an evil spirit."

Ranma smiled, "A noble gesture Bakura but the evil spirit possessing you made a critical error. He ignored warnings of both me and my sister and as a result this has turned into a Shadow Match. The normal rules of Duel Monsters and the Shadow Games do not apply." Ranma than narrowed his eyes, "I do believe Bakura would like his real body back. I'm betting that from what we have seen regarding your Ring and Pegasus's Eye that Yugi's Puzzle has similar soul transfer powers."

"An excellent idea, Ranma. If Bakura's evil Ring can switch souls then my Puzzle should be able to put them back." said Yami Yugi gesturing, Ranma frowned as a golden third eye appeared on Yugi's forehead. Bakura blinked his eyes and looked around.

"Alright our Bakura is back." said Joey.

"But where is the evil dude?" asked Tristan

"This cannot be." screamed the Lady of Faith in a deep male voice.

"I think that answers that question." quipped Ranma. "I wonder which is pissing him off more. The fact he just lost or that he is the wrong gender. Oh well time to end this. Kuan-Yaa!" yelled Ranma blasting the Lady of Faith causing it to dissipate.

Ranma walked over to where the Lady of Faith had stood and frowned, "Usually it takes more than that to defeat a monster in a Shadow Match and there is also some remnant of the defeated cards."

Yami Yugi frowned, "The spirit of the Ring has been defeated and I won the game so why are my friends still Duel Monsters?"

Ranma sighed, "Because there is no barrier between the ShadowRealm and Earth on this island anymore. In fact, we need to find the other duelists quickly. They are all in grave danger."

"Grave danger?" asked Yami Yugi his eyes narrowing, "What do you mean?"

"I mean this," Yugi. said Ranma as he grabbed Joey's sword by the blade drawing blood. "Unlike a Shadow Game a Shadow Match can _directly_ involve the duelist. Without the proper skills and knowledge such involvement could be tragic...even deadly."

Tea closed her eyes and took in a deep breath. Opening them she gestured. "Takuhi!" she yelled causing a bird demon to appear. Kneeling down Tea spoke to the bird demon, "Takuhi, my fellow duelists are in danger. Fly the island and tell every ShadowBeing you can find they are not under any conditions to allow their master to get involved directly in a duel. Understand?" The bird demon nodded chirping in harsh tones. "I know. I am not happy with this either." said Tea as she stood allowing the Takuhi to fly off into the night.

Ranma pulled out a map of the island and handing it to Joey used his Ki so they all could read it. "This map shows all the duel arenas on the island. The closest is in that direction. If he still holds true to form we should find Panik in that direction." said Ranma as he pointed in a certain direction from which a moment later a female scream could be heard. "Kuso! Come on." said Ranma running in the direction of the scream.

The group quickly found itself in a clearing. On the ground her eyes wide with terror sat a young chestnut haired girl. Standing across from her with its head apparently cocked to one side stood what at first glance looked like the Grim Reaper complete with scythe surrounded by something that looked like a floating ring of runes. Ranma quickly noticed Duel Monster cards hanging from the figure and realized it was the Reaper of the Cards being held in a Spellbinding Circle. Just behind the pair was what had once been a duel arena but it was now overgrown and rusted as if it had been sitting for centuries.

"An excellent defense my dear." said a voice that Ranma immediately recognized as Panik's. Turning his attention to the source of the voice Ranma noticed that Panik was striding up to the girl who shrank in fear. Panik's deep set eyes and nearly smooth features did make him look for all the world like something better suited for a horror film and their own recent transformations were not comforting to the frightened girl.

"Master Panik, what are you doing? The match is not over." asked the Reaper puzzlement clear in its voice.

"You are right that the match is not over but given what her Time Wizard just did to our playing arena I think a reassessment of this duel is in order." said Panik forcefully though Ranma thought he could detect a hint of fear in Panik's voice.

Ranma nodded at that thought. Panik was the only one of the Eliminators who had actually seen a Shadow Match and so was vaguely familiar with their rules. Ranma frowned, while Liltha had installed a desire for a challenge worthy of his skill and tactics in Panik he was still very much still a bully who got his kicks out of scaring duelists into defeat. That said Panik did have reservations about Shadow Matches and had stepped in prevent things from escalating any further when it became clear that his opponent was too terrified to continue one.

"Ranma, what the blazes happened?" asked Panik putting a tone of annoyance in his voice in an effort to hide his fear.

"Turns out one of the Millennium Items took over its welder and engaged Yugi in a Shadow Game. End result the barrier between the ShadowRealm and Earth on this island is totally shot, most likely permanently."

Panik's eyes widened, "That means _every_ duel could become a Shadow Match."

Ranma shook his head, "Not could, _will_, the Ki levels on this island were borderline as it was and now they are totally out of control. In fact I can barely detect your Ki through the level of ShadowRealm Ki that is now around." Ranma then looked in the direction of Pegasus's Castle, "I imagine that about every alarm Pegasus has is going off right about now."

In fact, Ranma had over estimated the extent of Pegasus' detection equipment. While it was true Pegasus had alarms in place they could only detect cards being played in the arenas not the presence of ShadowRealm Ki. Of course even if there had been such alarms they would have not done much good as the main people who could have reacted to them were elsewhere. Or it would be more accurately to say elsewhere _and elsewhen_.

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The climate of Egypt was as hot as Pegasus remembered it from the time he got his Eye. Setsuna had found out that other then their creation trying to view the history of the Millennium Items was in her words 'like trying to grab water' but Pegasus had come up with a theory regarding where at least the Puzzle had been for the last 3000 years. Yugi had said his grandfather was given the Puzzle by an archeologist relative and his grandfather had in turn given him the Puzzle. While the black market in Egyptian antiquities was a problem from what Yugi and his grandfather related Pegasus doubted the archeologist relative had the required contacts to obtain something like the Puzzle. Pegasus had immediately thought of _the_ moment of Egyptology and when Setsuna's attempts to view it failed due to ShadowRealm energy Pegasus felt it confirmed his theory.

In the hope some more information could be gleamed there what followed was an admittedly threadbare and equally hairbrained project; with the help of Setsuna he and his wife had lived several years in the past so to establish a relationship with these people. Setsuna had used her Time Staff to prevent him and his wife from aging here in the past while Pegasus had used his Millennium Eye to appear to have far more knowledge than he really did.

Pegasus had made good use of this time to get one more addition to the Carter expedition in an effort to try and hinder the horrors that would manifest themselves a decade hense. Now here he was with his wife in 1922 at the most famous moment in Egyptology waiting with suppressed excitement as as the door to the tomb was breached and the man who had excavated it put his hand through the hole with a flicking candle. The man's patron asked, "Carter, can you see anything?"

There was a pause and then the most famous answer in the history of Egyptology came from the lips of the man, "Yes, wonderful things."

Pegasus would have wished that the events that followed had matched the myth about the most famous discovery in the Valley of the Kings but he was a realist. Howard Carter was an archeologist but he was also dependent on the funding of Lord Carnarvon and so the reluctant acceptance of a suggestion of a private viewing after much celebrating was not a surprise. Pegasus did suggest that they wear face masks to prevent them from inhaling the molds that likely lay beyond. In the dim light they could catch glimpses of the objects made famous through out the world but Pegasus could clearly sense two Millennium Items in the tomb.

Pegasus had already eliminated the Anuk, Scales, and Rod (the idea that anyone could sneak out a solid gold staff about four feet in length without anyone noticing was ridiculous to say the least) as being the second item. The Eye, Torque, and Ring like the Puzzle were all small enough to have been spirited away as some people had thought had been attempted with the artifact that had been found in a wine case. Pegasus figured that the whole artifact in a wine case mess had been a distraction while the two Items had been snuck out of the tomb.

Pegasus noticed the man he had brought here touch a ring to better see it. Immediately Pegasus realized form the item's aura it was the Millennium Ring and he saw through his Eye a spirit in the Ring try to possess the man. The man let go of the ring as if from an electric shock. "Now you know why I insisted you participate in this endeavor, Heinrich Himmler." he whispered.

Carter frowned, "Mr. Crawford, are you saying you knew about this?"

"If you mean where the tomb was, no. But I knew we would find it nearly intact. I also suspected at least one of the Millennium Items was here." Pegasus gestured, "Mr. Himmler was the only other person besides me and my wife who has the knowledge to understand such things."

"Carter, you think you have just found the tomb of a Pharaoh but it is much more." Pegasus continued gesturing to the ring, "You have found proof that the true Aryan race the Sanjiyan Unkara once lived among us."

"There was a time I would have dismissed such things as superstitious poppycock." said Lord Carnarvon, "But the events of and shortly after the Great War showed me that our view is much smaller than we thought it was."

Howard Carter looked at Lord Carnarvon the flickering small lantern casting dark shadows across his face, "Yes but this is more. Like Himmler I too have seen the power of a Millennium Item. That is way it was imperative that I find this tomb. Not only for the treasures it contained but for the power that if missued could end the world as we know it. Is that Ring all that is here?"

"No. The Puzzle is also here. In that small box." Pegasus smiled a sad smile as Himmler and Carter carefully took the Items. Mayuan's comments about how her savior reluctantly became Pharaoh in the aftermath of his father's efforts at grabbing power fit the timeline Pegasus had worked out all too well: Pharaoh Tut inherited the Millennium Item problem from Pharaoh Akunamukanon (Amenhotep IV/Akhenaten) with his priest Ay scheming to put his own son Seto (Horemheb) on the throne. King Tut disappears and a substitute is buried in his place. After 4 years Ay dies and Seto uses a recent looting attempt of King Tut's tomb as a way to complete the seal on the Shadow Games. Pegasus took some solace that the young boy who had done his best to seal the Shadow Games was not in fact buried here; what was going to happen to the body within was disrespective to say the least.

While his trip to the past had confirmed his theory regarding some of the Millennium Items even with the shambles the place was in Pegasus saw no evidence of any scroll near the two items. That did not surprise him; anyone who took the trouble to seal the Shadow Games would have likely destroyed any written record of them especially when hidden in a tomb that had been broken into once before. At least Mayuan had shown that spirits within the items were cut off from the rest of the world so the Ring spirit had to adjust to a whole new world though like Mayuan it likely did not fully understand the Shadow Games or Matches but had an instinct for them.

Pegasus sighed as he left the tomb; as they had agreed previously within a few months, 'Pegasus J. Crawford' would simply disappear adding fuel to the story of the Curse of King Tut. Pegasus figured given his fanaticism about the idea of the true Aryan race being the Sanjiyan Unkara Himmler would either sway or destroy the Nazis in the decade before they came to power especially if Himmler believed that Crawford's disappearnce was the work of the Creatures of Darkness. Pegasus figured he had messed around enough without ticking off the Sailor Pluto in this new timeline and would be glad to return home and deal with the situation on his island in his own timeline.

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Pegasus found Seto sprawled out on the floor with Mayuan struggling within a Spell Binding Circle and Parvati's headless body trying to remove a sword that was pinning it to a wall while the head a few feet away scowled silently mouthing something, when he got home. Looking through his deck Pegasus pulled out the Dispell card and was shocked when it disappeared from his hand the moment he pulled it out. Looking up he noticed that the Spell Binding Circle was gone and Mayuan was trying to wake up Seto. 'I asked for a hour of time to pass here in the present as I thought it would allow Seto to know Mayuan better.' Pegasus thought angrily, "Mayuan, what in the world happened?" he asked as he picked up Parvati's head and put it back on the body.

"The Big 5 enlisted the aid of Kaiba Noah who tried to kidnap Mokuba. The other guardians were able to free Mokuba but only after they had arrived at the other island." said Mayuan on the verge of tears while Pegasus started pulling the sword free.

"Kaiba _Noah_? And what is this about another island? The closest island is 100 miles away!" exclaimed Pegasus as he finally pulled the sword free.

"Not anymore." hissed Parvati rubbing her tummy as the wounds closed up, "Just before everything hit the fan an island appeared just off the coast of this one. I was looking at the dim and dark ShadowBeings there through some field glasses when we got attacked. Next thing I know my head is on the floor and my body is stuck to a wall. Parvati looked over at the windowsill where a Takuhi sat chirping, "The barrier between the ShadowRealm and Earth on this island is gone?"

"What in the world? You're dead! I saw that Celtic Guardian chop off your head and then impale your body to the wall!" exclaimed Seto as he pulled himself from the floor.

"I am a Wu as well as Sanjiyan Unkara, mortal. I have survived dismemberment so decapitation was only a minor annoyance." said Parvati dismissively, "He says the entire island has become one big Shadow Match."

Pegasus had barely enough time to react to that statement before Seto grabbed him. "Alright, Pegasus. I have gone along with this insanity long enough." snarled Seto as he slammed Pegasus up against a wall. "I want some answers and I want them **now**. Just what is a Shadow Match and why did you pale when you heard this island has turned into one?"

"A Shadow Match is the term Ranma and his sisters gave to their training sessions with ShadowBeings," said Pegasus calmly, "Unlike either a Duel or Shadow Game a duelist can directly participate. A Shadow Match requires skills and abilities most duelists simply do not have which mean we could have a lot of injuries and deaths before the players on this island adjust."

"What?! How can you be so calm about it? My brother is in the middle of that!" yelled Seto as he pushed himself away from Pegasus and turned to leave.

"Don't mistake my calmness for indifference, Seto." growled Pegasus, "The one thing I learned from Ranma is the moment you lose control of your emotions in any match you lose. You go out there in your current mental state you will get your sorry ass handed to you regardless of your dueling skills." hissed Pegasus pointing at Seto while Parvati nodded in agreement. "However if you insist on acting like a mix of John Wayne and Dirty Harry at least have enough sense to take Mayuan with you."

Seto looked over at the female dragonoid who hung her head in shame, "It is the least I can do for my master to make up for my failure in protecting his brother."

"Besides," smirked Pegasus, "Mayuan's soul was used 3000 years ago to create the first Blue Eyes White Dragon. Without her willing sacrifice your favorite card would not even exist!"

Mayuan's head shot up, "3000 years ago? But how can my master still be alive?" she stammered looking between Seto and Pegasus.

"It's simple, Mayuan-girl. Seto is merely the latest reincarnation of the young man who originally saved you. A man the world knows as Pharaoh Horemheb."

"Reincarnation? What is reincarnation?" asked an angry Mayuan.

"Simply put reincarnation is where the soul instead of going off to the afterlife returns to Earth to be born into an earthly body and live another life," said Parvati folding her arms. "Who knows what people Seto has been between now and 3000 years ago? Of course for some of us this may be our first time on Earth."

"I don't care about previous or future lives, Parvati! All that matters to me is the welfare of my brother in _this_ life and I am not going to accomplish anything by staying here and talking with any of you. Come on, Mayuan." said Seto as he angrily left the room.

"At least the mortal had enough sense to take the ShadowBeing with him. I am going to have enough to deal with keeping the mortal duelists from accidentally hurting or killing themselves without playing nurse maid to that egotist." said Parvati as Pegasus shook his head and walked off.

"Husband, where are you going at a time like this?" asked his wife crossly.

"You remember that as part of my original plan I was going to have old style Shadow Games here with others seeking power?" Pegasus asked softly without turning around, "Well I was able to convince them that Ranma's Shadow Matches would give them more power than the old Shadow Games could ever do. They have been intently studying the Shadow Matches and if this whole island is one we need ever remotely knowledgeable person we have out there."

"You have got to be kidding!" yelled Cynthia, "You are going to trust the welfare of the duelists out there to a bunch of power crazed kooks in long robes?"

Pegasus chuckled, "Trust? My dear Cynthia, these people were in the Shadow Games for the power. I certainly do _not_ trust them. However they were willing to risk their souls being sent to the ShadowRealm in their quest for that power. That they will risk their lives to grasp power is a given and their efforts will help distract the monsters out there aiding in our efforts in preventing injury and death of the duelists."

Parvati smiled nodding, "Well it will certainly keep your friends occupied and you something to do other than sit on the sidelines while the rest of us try to reign in this disaster."

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It was dawn before anyone was really able to do much of anything. Of course since his Castle of Dark Illusions was strongest at night Panik was definitely not a morning person. At least the company of his duel monster companion made the task of playing nursemaid to a terrified girl and base operator of an impromptu rescue team tolerable. Panik shielded his eyes from the dawn light and frowned; off in the distance was an island that should not be there. 'Great, as if I didn't have enough on my plate to worry about,' he thought.

Meanwhile Ukyo was worrying about how to handle her breakfast customers some of whom where not reacting well to their monsters _really_ coming to life, especially as some of the monsters expected their masters to get involved in the duel. Fortunately the worst anybody had shown up with so far had been first degree burns but the fact there were injuries happening Pegasus had tried to call a halt to all duels. Problem was he really didn't have an effective way to get that announcement out to the duelists and so Ukyo's small restaurant was becoming a makeshift field hospital to duelists and ShadowBeings alike.

Isis finally crawled out of the pit she had fell into. It had been hard mainly because her left arm was broken. Panting on the edge of the pit she saw a shadow move over her. Looking up she saw Tea dressed in a variant of the Magician of Fate's outfit kneeling to help her up. "Ranma, I found another Duelist. Looks like her arm is broken thanks to her falling into a Trap Hole."

"Trap Holes and Fissures all over the flipping place. It's a miracle that no one has broken their neck yet." grumbled Ranma as he knelt down and pulled out a Ward and handed it to Tea. "Here hold this while I straighten out her arm. I don't want to heal her arm incorrectly."

"But, Ranma, not everyone has your training or endurance and we don't have any pain killers." said Tea softly.

"A few pressure points are nearly as good as a pain killer," said Ranma as he deftly touched various points on the girl's back. Isis felt her arm suddenly go numb as Ranma straightened out her arm pulling the exposed bone back into her arm. "Ok, Tea, use the Ward. It will also help prevent the young woman from going into shock when I reverse the pressure points."

Tea nodded trying to keep from getting queasy as she used the Ward Ranma had made. "How do you know so much about setting broke bones?" she asked.

"Pops was not one for doctors during my 10 year training trip. I figured after the Neko-ken stunt that I might need to know how to fix myself up. I mean Pop's idea of endurance training was to carry him lying on a sofa while trying to outrun some wolves."

"Ranma," said Joey as he walked over, "what style was your father teaching you from? The Martial Arts School for the Totally Deranged?"

"Nah. Just the Saotome Genma way of teaching the Ganso Musabetsu Kakuto Ryu. Don't think about it just improvise like crazy and hope that if it blows up you aren't around or least can get away in a hurry." Ranma said shrugging his shoulders. "That little plan didn't work too well with the Neko-Ken." Ranma said chuckling.

"I know I am going to hate asking but what was the Neko-Ken?" asked Tristan.

"A supposedly unbeatable technique that on the last page states only a total idiot would train anybody in it though I agree with Pai about the mentality of the genius who committed it to paper. Anyway you fill a pit with starving c-c-c-cats and then throw a young kid tied up in fish in. Repeat until the kid goes nuts and thinks they are a c-c-cat. This is usually followed by the trainer running for the hills as his student tries to turn them into hamburger."

Everyone just stared open mouthed at Ranma. "Ranma, please tell me that what you just said is some kind of bad joke." Tristan finally said.

"No joke, Tristan. There is a reason Parvati and I call Pops Baka-sama. The Neko-ken is just one example of 10 years of Pop's idea of training. Though as Parvati has stated even a blind man can hit a target once in awhile so every so often Pops actually comes up with an idea that is not stupid." Ranma said as he hit pressure points that let the feeling return to the girl's arm.

Meanwhile a winged figure landed and looked about. Kiema of Phoenix Mountain had been stunned when her following up the somewhat jumbled story of the Jusenkyo Guide had taken her to Japan. What she had found there were two entire cities of mystical beings and the just formed League of OtherWorlds in Tokyo proper. She had carefully shed her human disguise and found that people were willing to accept her for what she was. She had wrote a letter back to Sa Fulang telling him of these facts and of the League's request for the Phoenix Mountain people to join it. She then followed the trail of the two Sanjiyan Unkara who had helped form the League to this island and was greeted by more wonders.

Kiema saw a young girl being comforted by a blue skinned red winged fairy who moved so easily that it took Kiema several seconds to realize the fairy was naked as a jay bird. Kiema turned to her right and was greeted by a far more unpleasant sight. Before here stood a tall man with decayed dark blue skin wearing what looked like the tattered remains of a uniform with a sword at his side. "A creature of the light." snarled the creature as it drew its sword.

"Stand down Earl of Demise less you face the wrath of the Lord." said a soft and yet strong female voice. Kiema turned and saw a chestnut haired maiden clad in plate armor her long sword drawn.

"St. Joan!" spat the Earl of Demise his anger making his decayed features even more horrorable. "You pathetic creatures of light have annoyed me for the last time. Let me send to the Lord you so highly praise." fumed the Earl as he lashed out with his sword.

St. Joan staggered back her hand going to her cheek and then pulling it away looking at the blood the cut had made. "First blood may be yours creature of darkness but victory will be mine," said Joan her sword lashing out. The Earl staggered back his sword hand clutching his shoulder as he looked at his left arm now on the ground.

"I was just going to kill you two bitches but now you will find out their are fates worse than death." said the Earl smiling which made him appear even more ghastly than before. "Lord Bonz, let's have some _fun_ with the light maidens."

Kiema looked in the direction the Earl had directed his voice and saw a young zombie. Behind him stood a young man his head covered by a cloth decorated with the American flag, a large cross hanging from his neck, dark sunglasses covering his eyes wearing a leather jacket. The zombie turned to the young man, "Boss?"

The young man chuckled in a manner that held malice and cruelty in it. "Don't sweat it, Bonz. It's not like either of the light maidens are real. Remember my credo, Bonz, it's all about winning, not about how you go about it. Besides I'm sure the Earl won't mind if we join in his fun with the ladies."

Kiema shuddered as she quickly realized just what kind of fate worse than death and fun the Earl and this Boss had planned. Joan frowned and asked, "Just who are you that profanes the symbol of the Lord with such impure thoughts and actions?"

"I am Bandit Keith. I must say Pegasus really pulled out all the stops for his little tournament. Instead of simple hologram images we have lifelike beings that appear to be flesh and blood to play with. It's like a real life version of the Delos resort in the movie Westworld," said Bandit Keith smirking. "Bonz, I think it is time to show our little playmates just out of their depth they are."

"Perhaps it is you who need to be taught something, Bandit Keith," said a young female voice.

Everyone turned and Bandit Keith chuckled. "Well lookie, somebody let in the kiddie division. Go away kid, you're too young."

The red headed girl smiled darkly, "You trying to make me angry? You won't like me when I am angry." said the girl as she started changing.

"What in the sam hill is that thing?" stammered Bandit Keith at the four armed vaguely female form grinning at them.

"I am Ryoga and this is my Ran Pao Pao form. First I teach the Earl of Disrepair some manners and then I'll deal with you clowns."

"That is Earl of Demise, you four armed monstrosity." fumed the Earl.

"When I'm done with you _will_ be the Earl of Disrepair. And since you are a ShadowBeing I don't even have to hold back." grinned Ryoga as she slammed her two rights fists into the Earl.

"You want to play games you four armed freak? Well I have some painful games for you to learn." yelled the Earl as he slashed with his sword.

"Oooh. My old battle cry was Prepare to Die but in your case I think this one is better. EARL PREPARE TO BE DISMEMBERED!" yelled Ryoga as he punched her upper right hand into the Earl's chest.

Everybody else backed up as Ryoga's came back out with something in the hand. "Your card implied that you are a heartless bastard. Well I don't know about the bastard part but you did have a heart. Even if it was an unbeating hunk of decaying flesh."

"Eat cold steel, bitch!" screamed the Earl as he shoved the sword into Ryoga's left shoulder clean up to the hilt causing Ryoga to drop the object in her hand.

"I knew I should have trained in the old style version of the Bakusai Tenketsu rather than the new one Cologne and Ranma worked up." fumed Ryoga aloud, "Well you missed something vital so it's my turn. You certainly have guts. Let me see if I can correct that little matter."

Meanwhile Bandit Keith and Bonz were quickly making themselves scarce. "But Boss the Earl is still back there." said Bonz.

"Remember that when that thing gets done tearing him apart like an old Tinker Toy we're next. Just keep running, Bonz. We have to find somewhere relatively safe on this messed up island and figure out how to fight that four armed freak and whatever else is as strong as she is." said Bandit Keith panting as he ran. Which just goes to show how big a fool Genma had been; how could he believe that the Saotome Ryu Ogi was an ultimate _secret_ technique if someone like Bandit Keith can come up with it on his own?

"The one thing I like about you ShadowBeings is you are a lot like Wu. Which means I can vent and focus my anger with without worrying about permanently killing you. Oh come now don't tell me you actually needed your liver?" said Ryoga as she threw another part of the Earl away.

"The only thing I need is a good strong hand and you get throat trouble," said the Earl finally letting go of his sword and grabbing Ryoga by the throat. "First I strangle you into submission and then enjoy your looks of despair as I ravish you." gloated the Earl.

"You certainly have a one track mind," gasped Ryoga as she found the Earl's grip stronger than expected. Then in a flurry of motion there was a scream with parts of Earl getting thrown all over the place, followed by Ryoga getting up. "I heard of going to pieces in the heat of battle but that was ridiculous." Ryoga chuckled, "Ranma was right. Taunting your opponents does make them easier to deal with."

Ryoga then picked up the remains of her top, "Well that is one menace down, just who knows how many there are left to deal with." said Ryoga as she wiped her hands on the destroyed shirt, "Sorry about the violence ladies but the only way to stop that monster was to be _that_ vicious. Thanks to some idiot we have a totally out of control situation here and we have to use whatever means required to bring it back under some degree of sanity."

Kiema quietly nodded. "Can I help the Honored Ones in their efforts?"

Ryoga looked at Kiema puzzled. 'Honored Ones? Now why would she use that term? Oh wait a minute I bet she is _this_ history's version of Kiema. Well the Kami knows we need all the help we can get. Pegasus has even enlisted the aid of his power hunger flunkies.' Ryoga then looked over at the young girl near by, "Certainly. There is a restaurant we are using as a refuge." gesturing to the young girl Ryoga continued, "You can begin by getting that poor child there to safety. She should have a map but that path right there will take you straight to the restaurant. I would help but there are still a lot of people trapped in the midst of this madness without the necessary skills. Good luck." said Ryoga as she dashed off. 'I couldn't tell Kiema but the real reason I wanted her to take the girl to safety was because I am worried that I may be losing it.' thought Ryoga as she got to a high patch of ground and sniffed the air, 'It's not just because I think of this as my proper form and my original male human form as my curse but because I enjoyed tearing the Earl apart _way_ too much. Kuso I smell blood, a **lot** of it. I hope I'm wrong but it smells like we may have finally gotten a fatality.' Ryoga thought running in the direction of the scent.

Ryoga found one of robed figures Pegasus had enlisted or more accurately what was left of him sprawled out on the ground. Ryoga clamped down on any emotional response at this confirmation of everyone's worse fears--with a ruthless enough duelist a Shadow Match could very easily turn deadly. With other people's lives clearly in the balance Ryoga did not have the luxury of going off half cocked; this turn of events required a cold almost Soul of Ice approach. Ryoga followed the sent of blood and found another robed body and then another one. At the fourth body Ryoga crouched in thought. 'Ok, this is clearly not an accident but all I am finding are these robed clowns no regular duelists. What does it mean?'

"Just what we bloody well did not need." came Parvati's angry voice, "These robed men were soulless shells when they were killed and their bodies reek of ShadowRealm Ki but not the type the ShadowBeings have."

Ryoga frowned looking over at Parvati who was definitely in one of those moods. She couldn't blame her. First the island's ShadowRealm Ki goes off the scale and then the place turns into one big Shadow Match. Now to top off the whole mess it looked like they had another kill happy Millennium Item welding maniac on their hands. "How can this get any worse?"

"Mokuba was taken to the other island and his brother is running around looking for him using about as much foresight as Pops," said Parvati.

Ryoga rubbed her head, 'I **had** to ask that. I must be picking Ranma's knack for still saying the wrong thing at the wrong time.' Ryoga then roared to the heavens, "Just once I like to get some good news!"

"Even though my head was on the floor I saw Mayuan throw Wiseman's deck to Mokuba." said Parvati with a chuckle.

Ryoga frowned, "Just what good is that going to do him? He is not a martial artist and Wiseman as far as we know didn't even know about the power of the ShadowRealm much less its Ki. Without those two factors all he has is a deck of cards."

Parvati laughed, "You are forgetting that there is so much ShadowRealm Ki here that some ShadowBeings are popping up of their own accord."

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Image after image popped up as Pegasus pulled up what arenas were still working, "From what Parvati said I would say that island is actually from an Inner World - a reality normally separate from ours." he said to his wife.

"From the ShadowRealm." said his wife.

"I would assume so but I never saw anything to suggest anything like an Earthly setting from the few times I was there. Either it was a black void surrounding me or you could see this world but it was like looking at a still black and white picture. Almost as if it was both what Parvati calls an Inner and Outer Realm." Pegasus said as he cycled through the arenas using the cameras to scan the area around them.

"That looks like Bakura, the boy who was possessed by his Item." said Cynthia pointing to one image, "What is he doing?"

Pegasus pulled out the Eye of Truth and looked at the image. "Blast. Looks like Yugi-boy only thought he banished the evil spirit that triggered off this mess. That means he is after my Millennium Eye. Well I have the answer to that little idea and a way to finally free Bakura." Pegasus snarled as he pulled out four cards.

Moments later Yami Bakura walked into the main dining room and saw that Pegasus and his wife pulling up images of the island. On the table behind them was Pegasus's deck. Yami Bakura picked up the deck, "You know you can use a person's dueling deck to see into that person's character." said Yami Bakura as he put three cards face down as Pegasus and his wife turned.

Yami Bakura turned over the first card. "Shining friendship. This card tells me that you lost one you cared deeply for. As if you could care for anyone." smirked Yami Bakura as he turned over the second card and blinked in surprise, "Goddess of the Third Eye?"

"Obviously a reference to my encounter with the Sanjiyan Unkara whose knowledge changed my plans and who in part led to our current situation. But why don't you turn over the third card and see the future?" smirked Pegasus.

Yami Bakura scowled, something was wrong. The second card should have been Mask of Darkness showing how Pegasus had hid his true feelings. Now he was uncertain if the third card was actually going to be Doma the Angel of Silence signifying the end of Pegasus' life. He turned over the card and looked at "Doppelganger?! What the blazes does that mean?"

"It means you, foolish spirit, that you have walked right into my trap." smiled Pegasus.

Yami Bakura smirked, "Your bravado will not save you. Trying to keep a lid on the mess I accidentally created has obviously taxed your ShadowRealm powers to their limit. So this will be your final Shadow Game." snarled Yami Bakura as a beam shot from the Millennium Ring. Instead of falling Pegasus simply smirked. "Have you not figured out the meaning of Doppelganger, evil spirit?"

"Impossible." said Yami Bakura as his knees buckled under the strain. "No one has this kind of ShadowRealm power."

"Correction, spirit no one _human_ has that kind of ShadowRealm power." said Pegasus in a smug voice. The only problem was the voice did not come from in front of him but to the side. Yami Bakura turned his head and saw another Pegasus with his wife standing beside him. "In a Shadow Match most of the cards function the way they do in an normal duel including Copycat."

'Copycat? Of course that is what Doppelganger meant. A supernatural creature that takes the form of a human being.' Yami Bakura thought 'The Pegasus I attacked is one of these ShadowBeings. His Eye is not real and the feedback from trying to get it is overwhelming me.' Yami Bakura then stopped his attack and faced the other Pegasus, 'You tipped you hand too early you fool.'

'Did I?' said Pegasus as he tossed a card on the floor as Yami Bakura attacked. The spirit of the Millennium Ring promptly passed out from the feedback.

"Uh. I thought Ranma sent that evil spirit to the Graveyard." said Bakura holding his head.

"The thing may have its claws in your soul just like Mistress 9 did with my niece." said Pegasus that had been first attacked.

Bakura looked at the first Pegasus, "Your niece? But you are the ShadowBeing."

"Am I?" smiled Pegasus as he reached back and picked up something. As he did the second Pegasus and Cynthia disappeared. He then held up two copycat cards and a trap card that showed three creatures in surgeon's garb "When the spirit attacked he activated the DNA Surgery trap card I had set to temporarily turn all of us here into ShadowBeings. I had noticed that my Eye had problems reading the minds of the ShadowBeings, also when Tea and Sailor Mercury were combined into one being via Shadow Magic Shadi's Key stopped working. I reasoned that ShadowBeings cannot be directly affected by the Millennium Items, but I also needed a back up plan just in case I was wrong. Hence the Copycat doubles and their Magic Cylinder trap." Pegasus said putting the card face down behind him and walking over to pick up the card lying on the floor.

Bakura nodded, "So I am free of the Spirit?"

Pegasus frowned, "For the time being yes but forever I doubt it. The one being who has any idea on this problem is out there trying to keep the duelists from hurting themselves. I have reset the DNA Surgery trap so if the spirit tries to take over again it will retrigger. I think that is better than us finding out what the long term effect of being ShadowBeings is."

"Speaking of long term effects, husband, this mess is going to have some its own." said Cynthia.

Pegasus looked at the viewscreen, "Not only for Duelist Kingdom but for the whole League of OtherWorlds idea. The League made many people nervous but this is going to scare a lot of them silly." Pegasus then rubbed his head, "If that is not bed enough Seto Kaiba is in the middle of that mess with a ShadowBeing more powerful than even the Gods cards looking for his brother."

"What is this about Seto going off and doing something on par with Pops?" said Ranma as he walked in.

Pegasus chuckled, "I agree that Seto did not put much thought into his little endeavor but unlike your father he is thinking with his heart rather than his stomach. I take it you have found all the duelists and got them to safety."

Ranma narrowed his eyes, "Only the registered duelists. I came here so we could come up with a systematic method for finding the unregistered duelists we allowed to run loose on the island. My sister told me that at least one of them has been leaving the dead bodies of your robed friends all over the place like discarded toys."

"Our dream killer?" asked Pegasus.

Ranma shook his head, "No, remember that neither of us could detect ShadowRealm Ki in Happosai and Mai. By contrast these corpses practically reeked of it. Parvati and I have been trying to detect differences in ShadowRealm and I can tell you that it was not the result of a ShadowBeing attack. In fact the closest thing I had seen to this Ki was your Eye, Yugi's Puzzle and what I was able to see of Shadi's Key and Bakura's Ring when that thrice cursed spirit possessed him."

Pegasus hand went to his head in an effort to stave off an impending migraine, "Despite what Yugi-boy thought the spirit is not gone. It took over Bakura again and attacked me for my Eye."

"Wonderful, I trust you have put the thing under glass again?" asked Ranma.

"Yes, but this is not the first time it had tried to control someone. I saw it do the same thing to one of the people who first explored King Tut's tomb in 1922."

Ranma nodded as the spirit in the Ring woke up enough to listen in, '1922? But Pegasus it not old enough to have been there...'

The Ring's line of thought was interrupted by Ranma, "Was your theory right?"

"More than right. The tomb of King Tut held not one but two of the Millennium Items--the Ring and the Puzzle. Shadi told me that the Key and Scales were in his family for centuries. We know where the Puzzle and Eye are which leaves only the Rod and Torque to account for."

Ranma smiled, "Well Ishtar Isis has the Torque and she was shook up enough by the island going nuts to reveal some interesting facts. Her brother has the Rod and is obsessed with possessing the God cards and doesn't care about how he goes about getting them. She also has a God card called God of the Stone Tower, Obelisk. With the island ShadowRealm Ki the way it was I felt it better to leave it in her possession rather than risk activating a card that I have little knowledge about. Besides I know from the video tape of your summoning of Mayuan that she could have no problem defeating the thing as her attack is 1000 more than its."

"A sound idea Ranma as the God cards caused so much grief that one of them uses the original Egyptian hieroglyphics." said Pegasus.

"Meaning that you have no idea on what its powers are?" asked a shocked Ranma.

"Afraid so, Ranma. To be able to use Duel Master cards in a Shadow Game rather than the stone tablets I had to make the God cards. But it finally got to the point I just wanted to complete and then hide the blasted things." Pegasus then got that familiar smirk of his, "But in the end I created something even more powerful then they are."

"If there is any bright side to this mess it is that the chaos outside will hopefully keep our dream killer so busy that they can't do anything." said Cynthia as she looked out a window. "While Setsuna was able to probe the past so far no one has seen the person she saw. Though with the way our luck has been going I would say there is more than one Dream Killer."

"That would be par for the course. Any luck at getting to the other island and finding Mokuba?" asked Pegasus.

"Oh sure we've have luck, all of it bad." said Ranma sarcastically. "First off the place is huge and in addition to ShadowBeings there are what look like normal people on that island. Interesting thing is I have gotten reports of a queen who is the spitting image of Mokuba."

Pegasus raised his eyebrows at that, "You don't think..."

"With the way things have been going I have had barely enough time to react much less think." Ranma fumed, "Yugi and his friends have decided to go over there and look for Mokuba and I am going to help them. I just hope Seto manages not to get himself into too much trouble before we get over there. Meanwhile from what I have been able to piece together the rest of you will have the fun project of finding the four remaining duelists we know about before they do something stupid: Bandit Keith, his undead looking pal Bonz, Paradox, and Ishtar Malik."

"Guys we got a new problem." said Setsuna running in the room holding a telescope in one hand. "I got desperate and tried using the Ancient Telescope to look into the future. From what I saw Shadi will be soon joining our little party."

Pegasus paled, "Setsuna you have got to open another door to the past. There is no way we can have all seven Items that close together with the island in its current state especially with some of the God cards are here."

'Open a door to the past?! If that is possible then I could go back and stop the slaughter of my village my family.' thought the Ring spirit, 'What a minute if this person has that kind of power why has she not gone back in time to change things?'

"I would say the timeline I sent you to for your research on the Items would be ideal. It will also keep the number of divergent histories to a minimum.' Setsuna shook her head and held up her hand as she saw Pegasus reach into his pocket, "Keep your dueling deck this time. In the outside chance things go totally south we will need someone with enough resources to be able to come back and clean up the mess."

Pegasus frowned, "How will I know things have gotten that bad?"

"I will come back in a week your time and tell you." Setsuna said smiling opening her wings slightly as she gestured creating a Time Gate.

Once Pegasus and his wife walked through, Ranma turned to Setsuna, "You and your counterpart look for the duelists while Parvati, Akane, and I help Yugi and his friends look for Mokuba. I just hope he is still alright."

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'Well at least I'm not dead; I hurt too much to be dead.' thought Mokuba as he painfully pulled himself to a sitting position. He then looked to the hand that held the deck Mayuan had thrown him just before the Spell Binding circle hit her: a modified and updated version of Wiseman's deck. Mokuba frowned, as Ranma had pointed out without the combination of ShadowRealm Ki and a way to awaken it was simply a deck of cards. Mokuba sighed and slowly stood. 'At least nothing is broken. My brother is going to teach this Noah person a lesson when he gets his hands on him.' thought Mokuba angrily. Mokuba then looked around, 'Funny thing is I feel like I have been here before. This looks a little like that section of the virtual world my brother showed me.' Mokuba then shook his head, 'No the weirdness of the last month had gotten to me. If this was my brother's virtual world pulling out a card would...' he thought as he pulled out a card and saw it disappear as a Mystical Elf appeared.

The Mystical Elf then looked up and smiled. "How may I serve you Master?"

"What in the world?" asked a startled Mokuba.

"Master?" asked the Mystical Elf.

"How was I able to summon you?"

The Mystical Elf giggled "Your deck was saturated with a strange dark energy possibly from a magic item you used regularly as it responded to your efforts to summon me. Pegasus had your deck in his possession for several days, more than enough time to give it the ShadowRealm Ki needed to turn it into a Shadow Deck."

Mokuba looked at the deck in his hand, "The Jakokusuishou."

"Master? What is the Jakokusuishou?"

"Something I've been told a future version of me called Wiseman used for nearly 900 years." Mokuba said sighing. At least he could take comfort in the fact that Wiseman was only one of a countless number of futures for him. Mokuba turned his attention to the present. He had no idea how long he had been out so returning to Duelist Kingdom could result in him missing his brother who would be looking for him on this island. So that shelved any ideas of leaving here but it did not answer the key question. "Where are we?" he said outloud.

The Mystical Elf frowned, "Master, this island is artificial. It is a psudo-Inner World given existence by ShadowRealm Ki. I sense a machine aspect about what is here."

"Machine aspect?" asked Mokuba.

"Machine type ShadowBeings do not have emotions and neither does what ever created this." said the Mystical Elf gesturing to the surrounding area.

Mokuba nodded, 'A computer would fit that description.' Mokuba thought. Looking around Mokuba realized that he was not in the easiest place to find. If his brother had followed the pattern for RPG games there would be towns where one could get information, supplies, and lodging making one of them the ideal place for him to go. Of course the pattern was also you tended to need money in such places and the best way to get that was to go and pound on a few monsters lurking around. Mokuba rubbed his head, that would've been fine if they were mindless computer images but if they were like this Mystical Elf..., he would just have to play it my ear. Well time to go and find a monster.

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"Well finding Seto Kaiba is going to be easy." commented Ranma as he shook his head at the evident mayhem in front of them. Leaning over he opened the eyelid of a ShadowBeing, "Yep this one will be out for hours."

"You're telling me Seto did this?" asked Joey, "It looks more like Godzilla went through here on a rampage."

"Actually it looks like the kind of destruction we would do if we didn't plan our sparring matches." Akane said giggling "Kind of like that counterpart of mine."

"Oh yeh Ms. Ranma prepare to be hit by whatever blunt object is available because my temper control is nil." Ranma snorted, "Though as messed up as our counterparts in that other history were they did not leave out cold combatants all over the place. Of course this does match Seto Kaibi's sledgehammer method to dueling especially when you consider his ShadowBeing guardian has an attack and defense of 5000." said Ranma as he checked on another ShadowBeing.

"Attack and defense of 5000?!" exclaimed Joey, "How on Earth is anyone supposed to fight that?!"

"With tactics not brute force, Joey." chuckled Parvati, "Everything has a strength and a weakness. Humans, Sanjiyan Unkara, ShadowBeings, and all the rest."

"But the Sanjiyan Unkara are immortal, eternally young, and have great magic power." said Tristan, "What do humans have that compares with all those strengths?"

"I can answer that one Tristan," said Ranma solemnly as he looked off through a sizable hole in the treeline, "Imagination. We humans strive to make tomorrow better than today if not for ourselves then for our children. Immortal races for some reason have problems imagining new ways of doing things. Take the author of the Sazan Ryu for example, because they used magic almost exclusively they thought everything they saw was a form of magic. That is what was off about the whole book; it was not a book of martial arts at all but a book of magic."

"That is a prime example of a point made in an episode of a British sci-fi show I saw." said Parvati a soft sadness in her eyes. "The main character stated that our kind of immortality was in fact a trap; without death to allow new people with new ideas or new ways to look at things to replace the old a whole society can stagnate or worse degrade."

Ranma shook his head, "Mortal cultures can do the same thing. For example, Ke Lun said that a lot of my counterpart's headaches with hers was due to the dead hand of tradition; an unwillingness to accept change or new idea because so many people have a vested interest in preserving the old ones."

"The reason the immortally of the soul is different is that previous experiences are largely forgotten appearing only in dreams or as karma." commented Parvati.

"What of Heaven and Hell, Parvati? What of the souls that go there rather than reincarnate? asked Joey as they continued to followed the trail Seto's guardian was leaving in her wake."

"Remember that in Buddhism Heaven and Hell are cycles on the wheel of life just as Earth is." Parvati then frowned, "Every once in a while I have these flashes of memories that must before my current life; sometimes as a demon of a Hell, sometimes as a Kami of a Heaven."

"Well there is our current earthly headache." said Ranma angrily, "Seto, you idiot what in the blazes are you doing? Besides acting like my Pops that is."

Seto and Mayuan both turned. "Ranma, what are you doing here?" asked the duelist in an annoyed tone.

"Looking for your brother and finding your idea of outdoor renewal instead." said Ranma who recognized the tone Seto was using all too well.

"I don't need your help." Seto said as he turned.

Ranma angrily grabbed Seto's shoulder and was quickly reminded of Seto's guardian when he felt her fist plow into him followed by slamming into a tree. "You leave Master alone."

Ranma bit down on a witty retort looking at the humanoid dragon. "Look Seto. This island was created in the wake of a Shadow Game and while your Duelist skills under the old rules were topped by only one other duelist you are out of your depth here." Ranma said pulling himself out of the trunk of the tree. "You have no idea what is here on this island."

Seto smiled, "Actually, Ranma I know exactly what is on this island."

Ranma and Parvati both blinked their eye in astonishment. "I have heard mortals make some egotistical statements before but that one takes the cake." said Parvati.

"Perhaps but like my counterpart Seto would not make such a statement without reason." said Ranma.

"Uh guys what ever Seto's reason it will have to wait. We have company." said Tea pointing off to the side.

Looking over everyone saw a group of five Duel Monsters. At the front of the group was a ShadowBeing dressed up in a trenchcoat and hat making it hard to determin what he was. Just behind him to the right was Deep Sea Warrior his fins looking almost like some space age business suit, while to the left was Judge Man looking intimidating with his club. Behind and to the left of Judge Man was Machine Sergeant looking very much like a soldier in dress uniform with his stylized outfit while behind and to the right of Deep Sea Warrior stood Nightmare Penguin looking slightly silly in his suit with bow tie and top hat.

"What a weird group of ShadowBeings." said Joey.

Ranma narrowed his eyes and then widened them, "They're a weird group I grant you but they are not ShadowBeings, the Ki they are giving off is all wrong."

Seto frowned, "if they are not ShadowBeings then what are they?"

"The Ki I am seeing is like that of Mai, Tea, Joey, and Tristan. It's only a guess but I would say they are humans given the form and powers of ShadowBeings."

The Nightmare Penguin shook its head as it stepped forward, "Pathetic. Your figures are all wrong and so are your deductions. This is a virtual world simulation."

Seto scowled, "I know that pompous voice anywhere. Crump where is my brother?"

"Seto you know these guys?" asked Tea.

"Of course he knows us my dear." said Deep Sea Warrior, "It would be poor business strategy not to be familiar with your Board of Directors."

"Board of... these guys are the Big 5 creeps!" exclaimed Joey

'Kuso as if the Big 5 weren't enough of a problem as human beings.' thought Ranma, "Hey bird brain you said something about virtual world simulation. Mind explaining that?"

"Not at all as it is a simple equation." said Crump, "This world is a virtual simulation Seto was working on. When it became clear that Pegasus was stringing us along we went to plan B and started reprogramming it. But there was a power surge and our souls were pulled into the simulation. Now the only way for us to return to the real world is to duel you for your bodies."

"Look here you feather brained baka," snarled Ranma, "This _is_ the real world and somehow you have gone through the same transformation three of Yugi's friends have."

"It seems we have conflicting testimony." said the Judge Man, "You have anything to support your claim?"

"You bet we do." said Tea angrily, "Seto in your virtual world is there anything like Sanjiyan Unkara magic?"

"No, it was based entirely on Duel Monsters, but that is besides the point. You still haven't answered my question, Crump." yelled Seto.

"I haven't answered because other then him still being on this island we don't know where he is."

"For trying to take over a young man's company and kidnapping his brother to do it, in the name of the moon I will punish you!" yelled Tea as she pointed her staff at the Big 5, "Kuan-Yaa!"

The Big 5 barely had time to register their shock before the shining fang hit Crump and sent him flying. "What the blazes was that thing?" stammered Judge Man.

"Hey Tea what was with the weird speech?" asked Tristan.

"I have got to ask Mercury how she can say stuff like that without sounding like an idiot." said Tea hanging her head.

"I think that is the whole purpose of the speeches." commented Ranma, "Make your opponent think you're not all there and as a result they underestimate you. It's certainly better than some of counterpart's ideas."

Tea started chucking, "Actually it is supposed to be dramatic and strike terror into a foe's heart."

Ranma blinked, "That is even dumber than some of Pop's ideas! Please tell me you're joking."

"Nope. Thanks to our brief merge some of her memories and habits pop into my head sometimes at the worst moment." Tea then raised her head and smiled sinisterly at the remaining Big 5, "Who wants to stick around to see if I can pull off some of Sailor Mercury's attacks?"

It took a grand total of two seconds for the four standing Big 5 to decide to make use of the better part of valor. Tea laughed at the sight of Crump waddling at full speed to keep from being trampled and then continue along in abject terror. Ranma shook his head, "It's not going to take those goons long to figure out their ShadowBeing powers and then we are going to have our hands full." Ranma looked at Tea "You have Sailor Mercury's powers as well?"

"Nope not a one. But those guys didn't know that." said Tea as she stopped laughing. "Use to be that trying to do the simplest Sanjiyan Unkara spells left me exhausted but I feel great."

Ranma nodded, "Your body is drawing on the local ShadowRealm Ki to power your spells." Ranma turned to Seto who was staring at the departing Big 5 in shock. "Now are you finally ready to admit that we need each other?"

Seto turned and looked at Ranma, "We need each other?" he said his mind still coming to grips with the power Tea had demonstrated.

"The Nightmare Penguin mentioned something about this being a virtual world simulation you were working on and you indicated that you recognized this place." said Ranma, "While Crump was not correct in that regard it is clear that you have knowledge we lack and the reverse is true. So just what did Crump mean?"

Seto frowned, "I have been working on a virtual simulation Role Playing Game built around Duel Monsters. This island is laid out like the main continent when the primary quest is. That quest is to prevent the main evil overlord from collecting his tribute which is the princess of this kingdom. My concern is that I used my own brother Mokuba for the image of that character and the hook of the quest was the foiling of an attempt to kidnap the princess."

Akane nodded, "Just like what happened to Mokuba. No wonder you are worried."

"That is only part of the reason I am worried." Seto said gesturing to the outcold ShadowBeings, "Combat is nothing like I programmed. Defeating wondering Duel Monsters in the game would result in the player getting coins with with he could get additional cards for his deck. None of my encounters have resulted in an single coin and they are taking longer than they should."

Ranma nodded, "That is because the Ring's Shadow Game turned not only Duelist Kingdom but the surrounding region into one big Shadow Match. Crump mentioned a power surge while he and his cronies were tinkering around with this," Ranma said gesturing to the surroundings, "Your computer was still linked with the one of Duelist Kingdom and I suspect that the souls trapped in the Items on the island saw your virtual world as an escape and used it."

"Souls trapped in the Millennium Items?" sputtered Joey, "Ranma what in the world are you talking about?"

Ranma put his hand to his head, 'Of all the stupid things to let out of my mouth that one take the prize.' he thought.

'Don't blame yourself Ranma,' thought Ranko back, 'Both of us are too honorable to let Yugi or the Spirit of his Puzzle remain ignorant of the origin of the Millennium Items. Timing as usual could have been better but in reality there was never going to be a good time for this piece of news.'

Ranma looked at the group, "About 3000 years ago the Ancient Egyptians tried to create something similar to the Ningen No Zou and Ginzuishou."

"Setsuna told me that but seemed to be very nervous about it." Parvati said frowning, "You see from what we have been able to figure out the way the Ningen No Zou works is that when we Sanjiyan Unkara pass our powers through it we leave a little bits of both our Ki and Chakra behind. After centuries of use the Ningen No Zou became the powerful item it is now. The primary magic item of the Silver Millennium the Ginzuishou accumulated its power the same way."

"The problem is like your people fighting Kaiyanwang time was not something the creators of the Items had a lot of and they were not too particular about where they got that energy." Ranma sighed trying to figure out how to reveal the power of the Millennium Items, "Parvati you remember that technique Soun found on how to animate a clay soldier?" Ranma finally asked.

"Yes. I remember and the process sickened everyone who read it." said Parvati her face scowling, "The technique worked by preventing the poor soul from moving on by baking the person's remains into the clay. But what does that... No the creators of the Millennium Items did not do anything so horrific!" yelled Parvati grabbing Ranma by the front of his shirt.

"They did far more than simply that, I'm afraid. I really wish there was a better way to say this but the Millennium Items are Ningen No Zou, Kunlun vessel, and clay soldier all rolled into one or rather seven little packages via a Sanjiyan Unkara magic book called the Book of Gods and Demons."

Parvati dropped her head while letting go of Ranma's shirt, "How many?" she asked in a soft voice.

"Setsuna said the entire population of a village called Kuru Eruna was wiped out and their remains used." said Ranma softly, "She didn't give an exact counting and from the tone in her voice when she told Pegasus and his wife I wasn't about to have her go back and get one."

Parvati turned toward Yugi her face grim her three eyes burning with red Ki, "Puzzle Spirit I suspect you knew nothing of this so I am not angry with you but I am furious at the mortals who made these Items. It was bad enough they were blundering around with things they obviously did not understand but to have used one of our most sacred books to do it really ticks me off." the red aura in Parvati's eyes dimmed, "If there one good thing in this fiasco it is that our development of Shadow Matches has allowed the poor souls originally trapped in the items to be free."

"Physically but not emotionally free. Parvati," Ranma said, "Remember Mystical Elf? Most of these souls have been ShadowBeings for so long I doubt they remember being human or having anything resembling free will."

"Skyfeather is a prime example that not all the ShadowBeings have gone into a slave mentality." Parvati countered. "And Liltha is as far from a slave mentality as you can get."

"So why is there a difference?" asked Tea.

"I believe I can answer that," said Mayuan, "We the Egyptian people believe that what you call the soul is composed of many parts."

Parvati nodded, "It is a concept I am familiar with as the Chinese have a concept of a higher spiritual soul or Hun and a lower personality driven animalistic part or Po'. However I was not able to get enough time to ask Pegasus for the details."

"The Ka part of the soul is like that - a spiritual guardian angel and an earthly knowledge part. Then there is the Ba the human headed bird part of the soul which is tied to the shadowy Khaibit which brings it temple offerings. Sahu is the spiritual body, while if I understand the concept correctly Sekhem is akin to heavenly Ki. Finally there is the Ib or heart of a person which depending on their actions either resided with the gods or was consumed by Ammut." said Mayuan "Each part has differences which would manifest itself as different personalities."

"Our biggest headache is that while Ginzuishou, Millennium Items, and the Ningen No Zou all in essence do the same thing, store and utilize large amounts of Ki and Chakra, the philosophy behind each is way different. Which is why their power varies so wildly." commented Parvati, "Back to the matter at hand. Seto, just what is meant by a Role Playing Game?"

Seto who had recovered enough to hear the majority of the conversation smiled a little, "A Role Playing Game or RPG for short is akin to acting where you take on a role. However unlike a play or movie there is no set script so the interactions of the players with the setting and stock characters determines the outcome." Seto then frowned, "Now what is a Shadow Match?"

Ranma sighed, "Shadow Matches evolved out Pop's idea that ShadowBeings would make great sparing partners. As Wu Pai and I could take these Shadow Matches to any level we wanted, first hit, first blood, first kill, you get the idea." Ranma then reached into his breast pocket and pulled out a dueling deck. "Unlike Duel Monsters these Shadow Matches can result in permeant changes to the ShadowBeings involved. Take this Zombie Dragon for example, I thought that being undead it would be a good way to test my skills. Boy was I wrong."

Seto blinked, "What in the world? That monster's attack is only half what it should be!" he exclaimed.

"Right. In a Shadow Match most ShadowBeings have a third value which we call life energy. However this is not true of Zombie types; their life energy is zero. With nothing to draw on to improve with a Zombie monster gets weaker and weaker when it goes on the defensive against a stronger opponent. Zombie with a 0 defense degrade the fastest, this particular one was part of a test Pegasus and I ran to see how sparring effected each subtype of ShadowBeing and by how much." Ranma returned the card to his deck and pulled out another one, "While sparring with Zombies as always detrimental to their power, all other subtypes with the exception of object and machine improved. This Ceremonial Bell is unchanged even though it went through as many Shadow Matches as the Zombie Dragon did."

"Hey wait a minute," exclaimed Joey, "You mean for the most part these Shadow Matches increase the attack and defense abilities of Duel Monsters?!"

"Yes, Joey they do. While ShadowBeings can have Shadow Matches on their own we discovered the effect is most pronounced when someone not of the Shadow Realm is involved. However unless the Big 5 are into martial arts they likely will not spar with the monsters in their decks but if they learn about the way Shadow Matches work all bets are off."

"Even if they do Nesbitt my company's Vice President of New Technology is obsessed with machines. I wouldn't be surprised if he wasn't Machine Sergeant. As you said Ranma machine monsters are not affected by these Shadow Matches of yours." smirked Kaibi.

"No they are not but I would not get too cocky, Kaibi. Monsters are not the only things different." said Ranma.

"Good thing too because if Fissure and Trap Hole had worked on duelists like they work on Duel Monsters..." said Tristan.

Tea shivered, "Please I don't want to think about especially as now we are Duel Monsters."

Parvati shook her head, "No Tea you and your friends are changing into ShadowBeings and the way magic, trap, and monster effect cards effect them is much akin to the way it effected the duelists you found."

"So a Trap Hole or Fissure card will not send us to the graveyard? Great because that is sure not one place I want to revisit anytime soon." said Joey.

"Don't get too overjoyed Joey." Ranma said firmly "If you take enough damage that your life energy goes to zero you can be sent to the graveyard just as you were in the Ring's Shadow Game. Going all out at the start of a Shadow Match is a very bad idea. It can reduce the strength of your monsters and leave you wide open and believe you me you do not want to have your life points reduced in a Shadow Match; it makes what Yugi went through with Just Deserts in that Shadow Game look like a paper cut. Which is why it is better to be _in_ a Shadow Match rather than directing it; the magic and traps hurt but nothing like losing life points."

"Enough with the talking." snapped Seto, "My brother is in the middle of this Shadow match version of my program."

"It't not like he is totally at the mercy of this. The ShadowRealm Ki is so strong that monsters, traps, and spells were being summoned all over the place on Duelist Kingdom island and this place is formed out of ShadowRealm Ki. Never mind that Mokuba has one of the best decks at his disposal to defend himself with, Seto; a version of your own deck that his futureself Wiseman kept that he himself beefed up with some of the new cards."

"Look Ranma I still refuse to believe that in one future that my little brother became some homocidal walking corpse." snapped Seto Kaibi.

"Seto you are just being as stubbern as my counterpart was being," Akane said crisply, "We are not saying your brother will be Wiseman just that it at one time it was possible."

"The key phase in that statement is 'at one time', Seto." said Ranma as Seto opened his mouth to respond, "Wiseman like Neo-Queen Serenity and Paradox required a particular sequence of future events that will for us **never** happen. If it is any comfort I believe that Neo-Queen Serenity's actions were so extreme that someone becoming Wiseman was inevable; we just happened to be contacted by the timeline in which it was your brother. In another history it could have been me or even Yugi, but enough of tommorows that will never be. Let's go find your brother and teach the Big 5 and this Noah Kaibi some manners."

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[Author's note: I wanted to use an interesting continuity glitch in the US version of the anime. If you watch closely you will see Tea's card stats become those stated above right after her tear activates her card's flip effect. On the 'real identity' of Pharaoh Akunamukanon I discarded the anime's 5000 years for the simple reason that the Old Kingdom (c2650-2184 BCE) did not do the kind of elaborate wall murals seen, however this _does_ match what is known about the New Kingdom (c1539-c1069BCE) which roughly fits into the manga's 3000 years ago. The New Kingdom is also a better fit for the events put forth in the manga than the Old Kingdom.


	27. Chap 27 Past Crimes, Future Punishment

Chap 27 Past Crimes, Future Punishment

Ranma 1/2 is the creation of Rumiko Takahashi, 3x3 eyes (Sazan Eyes) is the creation of Yuzo Takada, Sailor Moon is the creation of Naoko Takeuchi. There are also a few other characters from other anime which belong to their respective creators. All are used without permission. This fan-fiction isn't intended for commercial use but is rather a tribute to Ranma 1/2, 3x3 Eyes, and Sailor Moon.

Skyfeather and Kiema shook their heads while Ryoga closed the boy's dead staring eyes. "Ryoga, what this bring the body count to?" asked Skyfeather.

"Fifthteen," grumbled Ryoga as she stood and walked over to a depression in the sand, "Looks like there was a boat of some kind here. You can still see where it was beached above the high water line. That is strange, there are two sets of footprints but only one comes here. The other set simply goes into the surf,"

Kiema walked over the body, "This one called with one with him, Bandit Keith, Boss. Perhaps it is his footprints that lead into the surf."

"From what I saw Bandit Keith didn't strike me as the sort of person who would commit suicide by simple walking out into a surf," Ryoga, "Let's spread out and see if there is anything else that might give use a hint as to what happened here."

A few minutes later Skyfeather's voice rang out, "Skyfeather find remains of young man that give Pegasus Eye."

Kiema and Ryoga both went to where Skyfeather's voice had rang out. There they found Skyfeather looking up at Shadi's body a good three feet above the ground a tree limb sticking out of his chest with a look of stupefied amazement on his face. On the ground at the base of the tree there were what Ryoga figured were the Millennium Scales. One breaking point and several minutes later they had Bonz and Shadi's bodies laid out in the training arena with the other 14 corpses. "This is beginning to look like a freaking morgue."

"That is why we are putting the bodies here, out of sight of the duelists we have rescued," said Setsuna the Scales in her left hand.

"Figured out how those things work?" asked Ryoga.

"No and though we did find out what happened to the Ankh; Bandit Keith has it. Seems he and Bonz ran into Marik, problem was Bonz's deck was themed around Zombies."

"Zombies are the most useless things to have in a Shadow Match," grumbled Ryoga shaking his head.

"You have that right. Marik's monsters made short work of them and Bonz. He then decided that Bandit Keith would make a perfect foil against Yugi and tried to control him with the Millennium Rod. His timing could have not been worse as Bandit Keith had Cyber-Stein and Polyermization in his hand and next thing Marik knew Bandit Keith fused with Cyber-Stein becoming Bandit-Stein. Shadi then showed up and tried to stop Marik but Bandit-Stein seeing it as a weapon he could use against Marik grabbed the Millennium Ankh and his efforts to get it off Shadi resulted in Shadi being thrown to where you found him. Marik found out Bandit-Stein was immune to the Millennium Rod and hightailed it out of there in a boat he had arrived here in. Bandit-Stein being now a machine ShadowBeing-human simply walked after him. I was able to see them arrive on the other island before the Time Gates got close to the present and conked out."

"Bandit Keith was bad enough but this Bandit-Stein sounds worse. Any idea if ShadowBeings can use these Millennium Items?" asked Kiema.

"I don't know but my guess is since they seem to be immune to the Millennium Items the reverse would be true. If I am right then ShadowBeings cannot use the Millennium Items."

Ryoga nodded and decided to bring up another problem, "I was planning to have the duelists taken to the ship for safety but I can't raise the ship," said Ryoga in a worried tone. "Also communications with the outside world are starting to break down."

"I've noticed problems with the Time Gates as well when I try to look at past events outside where the ShadowRealm Ki extends. With cards like Time Machine and Time Wizard it would not surprise me if this area not only connects Earth and the Shadow Realm but different times as well."

"Setsuna, can't you do anything? I mean I have had enough of alternative timelines to last me a lifetime," pleaded Ryoga.

Setsuna shook her head "It's not a case of another alternate timeline but of not really being in sync with the rest of the world. Sort of like all those stories about people who stayed in the realm of Faerie for a night and found decades or even centuries had passed for the rest of the world or people who saw friends disappear in a faerie ring for a few hours reappearing looking years older. In short this whole region is becoming like a ship adrift in the Sea of Time."

"What about Pegasus? He is still in that alternate past."

"There are no problems linking up there; in fact the exact opposite. I suspect it has to due with the fact he has a Millennium Item."

"If this region is akin to ship couldn't we give the Millennium Scales to someone we trust off the island effectively make them the captain?? I mean I don't want to step off this island and find out that my world had been gone for centuries or that the glory that was Rome is still alive and well," Ryoga asked as Setsuna looked into a mirror.

"Normally I would be resistant to such an idea but it seems that with all the Items here things are getting worse rather than better. The only problem is the only outside person I would remotely trust with the Scales is already in an area of massive ShadowRealm Ki. We don't want a repeat of this disaster in the middle of Tokyo."

"From what Ranma said I think you need several items and the God cards in an area of high ShadowRealm Ki to cause this kind of mess. Only one of those conditions exists where Ke Lun is," said Ryoga as she fidgeted.

Setsuna nodded, "Alright I'll give Ke Lun the Scales to protect while you mobilize every ShadowBeing you can get your hands on and find that ship. The ShadowRealm Ki is increasing and the longer people say on this island the more and more they pick up this Ki. I'm afraid if the process continues the duelists here could change into ShadowBeings just like Tea did. We need to get the duelists off this island as soon as possible so they will be safe."

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Strings was running for his life trying to find a place of safety. It was one thing to go and steal rare cards but it was another thing when one of those cards woke up and decided he was not worthy. Looking back he ran into a tree. Turning around he saw the Beautiful Headhuntress raise her weapon. Then there was a sound like an ax chopping wood and Strings moved his mouth but no words came out. Then was the sound of a body falling to the ground and Beautiful Headhuntress pulled the deck from the headless body that had been the Rare Hunter Strings. "You stole me from my true master and now you have paid the price," said the Beautiful Headhuntress. Looking down at the deck "Perhaps it is time to find a new master; one who can better protect us. Don't worry Slither, I will examine every detail and only the person that fits my high standards will be our new master."

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"I have to admit your program combined with the Shadow Realm has created an artificial world as detailed as the real one," said Ranma as they stood before a signpost that had a wanted poster nailed to it. "It looks like instead of simply defeating the ShadowBeigns here you have to bring them in for a bounty."

"It's level of complexity we could do without," grumbled Seto.

"For once I have to agree with Kaiba," said Joey, "It hard enough just defeating these guys but to have to haul proof usually in the form of their out cold bodies back to a town is a royal pain."

"Granted but the amount of personal wealth they have is poor. Uh, Akane, one of our bounties is waking up again," said Ranma as one of the forms on the Dark Zebra started to stir.

"No problem as he looks a lot like your father's original cursed form. Panda no Baka!" yelled Akane as she brained the figure with the bamboo stick she was carrying. "How much will these two net us?" she asked as the figure went limp again.

"Bounties are level times 1000, so Frenzied Panda and Blue-Eyes Silver Zombie will bring in a total of 7000. According to Seto that will allow us to get some new cards in return," said Ranma as he studied the signpost. "Seto, which way you think we should go?"

Seto frowned as he looked at the signpost, "That is a hard one, Ranma. Each of these towns are important to the quest. Boarderkeep has a better selection in magic and trap cards and it was part of the simulation I showed my brother. Capit on the other hand is the main city of the Kingdom where my brother's double is. Her carriage and guards were programmed as the encounter that introduces the quest. If the player failed to rescue her the game would have the guards take them to the palace where the captain of the guards would explain the situation."

"Ten will get you one that those Big 5 creeps tried to reprogram this thing so you and Mokuba were to be the targets rather than the princess," said Tristan as he shifted his side arm.

"From what we have seen of Wiseman's deck I would go to Boarderkeep" said Akane, "Mokuba is familiar with it and given its name I assume it is a smaller town making it easier for Seto to find him."

"Good points, Akane, but my virtual RPG was never supposed to try and kidnap players only the princess," said Seto, "If the Big 5 have succeeded in partly reprogramming this he could have been escorted to Capit," Seto then nodded his head, "We will go to Boarderkeep, It's closer, will give us a change to get new cards, and it is really not that far out of our way."

"Good reasoning, Kaiba," said Parvati, "Let's get there as fast as possible."

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Getting to Boarderkeep proved to be easy. However once they were there Seto frowned at a poster proclaiming coliseum battles. "A coliseum was not part of the original program for this city."

"Given the nature of Shadow Matches however it makes sense that the ShadowBeings would have to have some method of training," commented Ranma.

"And there was one in other part of the game but not here and that coliseum was to win a card needed to cross a desert," said Seto.

"Between the Big 5 and the Shadow Matches who knows how the cities are now set up," grumbled Akane.

"Well well, looks like I found another Millennium Item wielder," laughed a sinister voice.

Everyone turned to face the owner of the voice. Wrapped around the figure's head was a cloth with the design of the American Flag, its black leather jacket complimenting the dull iron gray of its skin while a golden cross and Millennium Item as well as silvery wrist bands were a sharp contrast. Seto widened his eyes, "Good heavens I recognize you from the US regional finals. You're Bandit Keith."

The figure snickered, "I am honored the great Seto Kaiba remembers my most humiliating defeat," it said sarcastically. "After I pound that Marik goon into worm food for trying to take over my mind I will enjoy humiliating Pegasus the way he humiliated me because after that I will have twice the number of Millennium Items he has..," the figure then narrowed his eyes snarling, "to cheat with."

"I told Pegasus that like my Pops his past misdeeds would eventually catch up with him," grumbled Ranma shaking his head.

"Don't be too angry with Pegasus as from what Ryoga told me while we were following the trail of bodies somebody was leaving in their wake this guy is a total creep," said Parvati in total disgust. "This jerk wanted to help ravish a ShadowBeing and this history's version of Kiema. Seeing his Earl of Demise turned into the Earl of Itty Bitty Pieces caused him and his creepy friend to make a perfect execution of the Saotome Ryu Ogi. That reminds me where is your friend Bonz?"

"My friend Bonz is dead," said Bandit Keith grimly, "Marik's monsters tore through Bonz's zombies like they were nothing and then Bonz himself. The jerk then tried to turn me into a human puppet gloating about the power of the Millennium Items when next thing I knew I changed into this; something called Bandit-stein. Then some guy calling himself Shadi showed up and started getting pounded by Marik's monsters. I grabbed the object he called a Millennium Ankh from his neck and threw Shadi away and tried to use its power against Marik. For some reason I could not use the Ankh but Marik got scared as his Millennium Rod wouldn't work on me anymore and escaped in a boat he had used to get to this island. I found that I didn't need to breathe anymore and simply walked after him. I have been beating up on the local wandering annoyances learning about how these new duels work while looking for Marik."

"Greetings visitors, will any of you be participating in the Arena Games?" asked a female voice.

Everyone turned and blinked at what they saw. It was clear from the headdress and face the ShadowBeing before them had been a Mystical Elf at one time. Ranma and Parvati both looked at each other and then back to the ShadowBeing. The long flowing robe had been replaced by a dull forest green one more suited to fighting while the long blond hair glistened as small objects in it caught the sunlight. But the most pronounced change was in the face and eyes; on her forehead had been painted a black crescent moon and her eyes burned with a intensive self will that Ranma and his sisters had seen in only a handful of ShadowBeings.

"And what are these Arena Games?" asked Bandit-stein.

"A method in improving your deck. Since nearly all ShadowBeings improve in the Games my master decided to make things interesting by having one requirement--a rare or powerful card must be wagered by each player, winner takes all."

"This master of yours have a name?" asked an annoyed Seto.

The ShadowBeing laughed, "Of course he has a name as do I. I am Illumina and my master is Wiseman."

"Wiseman?!" exclaimed the group as a shadowy figure moved toward them. Illumina turned and her smile brightened even more, "My I present my master Wiseman, And you all are?"

Parvati gestured as she spoke each name "My brother and sister Saotome Ranma and Ranko, their friend Tendo Akane, the world champion Kaiba Seto and his guardian the Gray Wizardess Dragon Mayuan, the one duelist who was able to beat Seto, Mutou Yugi, Yugi's friends Mazaki 'Tea' Anzu, Jounouchi 'Joey' Katsuya, Honda 'Tristan' Hiroto, and Kujaku 'Valantine' Mai. I myself am Saotome Parvati and Pai. Oh and the man over there is Bandit Keith or do you prefer the name Bandit-stein?"

"Bandit-stein will do as I doubt that I am exactly human anymore," said Bandit-stein looking at his metallic hands.

The robed figure stepped into the light and nodded. Nearly everybody stood in gaping amazement as there standing as big as life was a figure that matched the description Ranma had given of the Black Moon Family's founder and adviser. Ranma smiled a knowing smile and asked, "I am honored. Can we rest up to plan our strategies?" Ranma as he looked at Seto gesturing with his left hand and eyes.

"Certainly. To give you the time you need Master will wait until tomorrow to play the Arena Games with you," said Illumina clapping her hands, "La Jinn, see to our guests needs," she said to the green genie that appeared.

As La Jinn led the group to an inn Joey looked at Ranma, "Ranma, what is going on? I thought you told us Paradox killed Wiseman."

"I think Ranma is going to explain Joey but not out here," said Seto his eyes narrowing.

"Yes though I know my sister has figured it out already," said Ranma glancing at Parvati who nodded smiling. Once they were given some rooms Ranma had the group gather together in his room.

"Ok Ranma, what is with all the cloak and dagger theatrics?" asked Tristan.

"Very simple I didn't want to real the truth about Wiseman out there where any possible flunkies of the Big 5 could hear it."

"What truth is that?" asked Tea.

"I'll answer that question with one of my own to my sister," grinned Ranma, "Did you notices anything strange about this Wiseman?"

"While at first glance the figure looked like the Wiseman Paradox turned into a shiskabob several details were off. First off the robe was not saturated with Dark Crystal Ki as the real Wiseman's would have been, in fact the only Dark Crystal Ki on the figure at all was small. About the size of a deck of cards," Parvati said as Seto's eyes widened in realization.

"Second unlike the real Wiseman's robe this robe was torn and dirtied to give the appearance of great age. I would tell by the way the tears were made that they were artificial and the dirt looked too new," continued Parvati.

Ranma chuckled "Of course the most interesting detail was even with all the ShadowRealm Ki we could still pick up human Ki but only from the head to about the waist. Meaning that the person down there is actually a much smaller person operating something akin to a puppet from the inside."

"This Wiseman is really my brother Mokuba," exclaimed Seto softly.

Parvati chuckled "I have to admit Mokuba used the perfect identify to hide behind. One the Big 5 know next to nothing about but one that once you learned about would have perked your interest. He likely used something akin to a puppet golem to make himself look like Wiseman."

At that moment a knock was heard at the door. Opening the group saw Illumina standing there smiling, "My master has graciously offered that Yugi and Seto as well as their friends share dinner with him."

Ranma bowed and said, "We would be honored."

Illumina bowed back and said "I will send La Jinn when it is time. In the meanwhile you can freshen yourselves up," and then quickly went down the hallway.

After freshening up and talking for a while La Jinn appeared and escorted the group into a large room just off the coliseum. There standing off to one side was Wiseman. "Illumina can you get me out of this thing?" he asked in a voice distorted by a metal mask he wore.

"Certainly, Master," said Illumina as she draped the back of the robe up over the shoulders. Then there was the sound of straps being unbuckled and eventually a very sweaty Mokuba Kaiba emerged from the back of the figure held in the arms of Illumina.

"Sorry about the disguise big brother, but it was the only method I could think of for looking for you and giving you a hint as to were I was without attracting the attention of the Big 5 or that Kaiba Noah person," said Mokuba using his hand to sweep his sweat drenched hair out of his eyes as Illumina set him down.

"That is alright, little brother," said Seto smiling slightly, "I must admit you had _me_ going for a while there. A very clever strategy."

"Ok we found Mokuba how about we get back to Duelist Kingdom before anything else happens?" asked Joey.

"No," said Mokuba, Seto, Ranma, and Parvati together.

"What do you mean no?!" yelled Joey.

Ranma sighed, "While I suspect the Kaiba brothers have personal reasons for not leaving this island our reasons are practical. There is no way Parvati or I am going to let five greedy men who have been changed into ShadowBeings run loose on an island created from ShadowRealm Ki especially as each one of them may have a dueling deck to at his disposal. We shut these clowns down before they figure out enough about the Shadow Matches to become a problem."

"How about we go over how to deal with the Big 5 and Noah over dinner," said Mokuba.

Parvati winced and put her head in her hand, "Please tell me you have not been eating the food and water here."

"Of course. Is that a problem?" asked a concerned Mokuba.

"With the amount of ShadowRealm Ki on Duelist Kingdom at the moment not really," said Ranma sighing, "Eating ShadowRealm generated food is just going to accelerate what is going to happen anyhow."

"What do you mean?" asked Joey his voice quivering fear.

"Oh you, Tristan, and Tea don't need to worry. Given the way your Ki is behaving I would say the process was complete in you three," Parvati commented, "Yugi's puzzle interferes with my reading of his Ki so I cannot tell you if he is being affected. But I can tell you that the Ki of the Kaiba brothers is becoming more and more like yours and the Big 5's."

Yama Yugi manifested himself his eyes narrowing, "Couldn't your have warned them?"

Parvati shook her head, "I didn't really put up all the pieces together until we found Seto and saw that his Ki had changed. By that time given the way Seto was behaving I knew such knowledge would make him even more emotional than he was already. We needed him as calm as possible to find his brother not have him running around in emotional confusion like that Mu Si person did."

Illumina scowled. "You should not be so hard on the poor boy. Sure his love for Sham Pu at times blinded him to reality as much as his bad eyes did but his heart was in the right place."

"A nice sediment Illumina," said Ranma his voice then dropping in tone, "But I would like to know how you knew his love was Sham Pu or that his eyes were bad?" he finished glaring at Illumina.

Illumina smiled sheepishly, "I really stepped into that didn't I, Ranma? That is the problem with remembering too much of your previous life."

"Mu Si?!" asked a stunned Ranma.

Illumina frowned "Not really. Oh I have the memories of my life as Mu Si but I am not him. For instance I not longer love Sham Pu but rather Mokuba."

Ranma got a little green, "Isn't he a little young for you?"

Illumina looked at Ranma puzzled followed by her eyes widening and she started looking a little ill, "Kami-sama not like _that_; I mean as a mother loves her child. Ranma, you have got to get away from Happosai more often; being around him too often is causing you to jump to some really perverted conclusions."

Parvati shook her head as Ranma turned a bright red and put his hand behind his head. "Well your pursuit of Sham Pu when you were Mu Si was not exactly healthy."

Illumina frowned, "Parvati there is a big difference between not healthy and just plain sick. And the idea that I would want the type of relationship with Mokuba that I tried to have with Sham Pu is definitely in the sick beyond what even Happosai would do category. Besides unlike your friends I did not change into a ShadowBeing; I was reincarnated as one."

"Don't mind them," said Akane, "They still on occasion shove their feet into their mouths."

"Oh? Then it is a wonder they don't get athlete's tongue," grinned Illumina. "I still know Au Ch'i, Ranma. Want to see how good I am when I am actually facing an opponent rather than attacking the landscape?"

"Sure no better way to work up an appetite. Besides its time my friends saw part of a ShadowMatch," grinned Ranma as he slowly moved so that there was no one behind him.

"Painiyao Chuan Kunai Chain revision!" yelled Illlumina as a three bladed weapon exited from her robes a chain trailing behind.

"Still favoring ranged attacks I see," chuckled Ranma as he jumped over the Kunai and towards Illumina.

"Yes and don't think you can trick me into getting clobbered by my own Kunai Chain trap card," smirked Illumina as she gracefully dodged both Ranma and the Kunai following right behind him.

Ranma started grinning from ear to ear as the Kunai pulled the chain around him. "Hey Illumina time to light up your life. Kuan-Yaa!" Ranma yelled as Illlumina's eyes widened realizing what was about to happened but unable to do much about it. The Kuan-Yaa ran down to the chain right into Illumina whose hair spread out, clothes got singed, and blue skin slightly burned from the electrical attack.

Illumina grinned back yelling, "Light magic attack!" as she grabbed the chain. Now Ranma looked as much a burnt offering as Illumina did. The two combatants looked at each other and fell down laughing.

Parvati chuckled, "Without your weakness you are good. Now if you two are done turning each other into flambé ala martial artist we can eat."

As several ShadowBeings from Wiseman's deck started serving dishes remanacent of Thanksgiving Seto looked at Ranma, "Is that what you mean by participating in a Shadow Match?"

"That is just one of the many ways you can participate in a Shadow Match. While Pai and I take the Warrior approach Ranko and Parvati go for Spellcasting. We also noticed that the person doing the summoning often effected the powers as well as the behavior of the ShadowBeings they summon. For instance one of the few times Ke Lun was involved in a Shadow Match her ShadowBeings jumped 200 to 300 in defense when she summoned them for the first time," said Ranma smiling.

"In keeping with Ranma's training we call this the Deck Sensei Effect. It is even more pronounced when a ShadowBeing does it. For example I noticed that when I summoned spellcaster subtypes their attacks increased by 200 points the moment they were put on the field but they picked up ranged Ki attacks," said Parvati as she cut a piece of meat off the turkey.

Ranma then picked up where Parvati had left off without skipping so much as a beat, "By contrast when Panik has Liltha summon monsters on his behalf every Dark monster she summoned had its defense increase by 500. Given that Tristan, Joey, Tea and the Big 5 are part ShadowBeing now I suspect that their Deck Sensei Effects will be as pronounced as Liltha's is. Since we were looking for the standard rules of a Shadow Match we tried as much as possible to avoid exceptions; as a result we have little information on what your Deck Sensei Effects will be."

"What of Yugi, Mokuba, or myself?" asked Seto.

"I suspect you effects will be like mine--very subtle. I imagine there is a training arena connected with the coliseum," said Ranma looking at Mokuba who nodded, "We can step through the details of a full Shadow Match there. Don't worry the general mechanics of using the various cards is the same it is just the resolution that changes."

The group quietly finished their meal and Mokuba had Illumina put him back into his Wiseman golem. They then followed him to a training area set up much like the lower arena in Pegasus' castle only this was made of wood not stone. As Ranma pulled out his deck and two little pouches Bandit-Stein was led into the room, "These contain is a special powder so you can see things that normally require highly trained martial arts to see. Tea let's see how well you can do in a Shadow Match," said Ranma as he threw her a pouch. "Yugi you, Tristan, Parvati, and Wiseman observe Tea's cards while Seto, Joey, Bandit-Stein, and Illumina observe mine."

Once everyone was in position Ranma gestured to Tea saying, "You may go first my dear."

"I play Fairy of the Fountain (1500/1100) in attack mode," said Tea.

"I play Gearfried the Iron Knight (1800/1600) in attack mode. Now before we go any further take the pouch I gave you and sprinkle it on Fairy of the Fountain while I do the same to Gearfried The Iron Knight."

As they both did so everyone all saw a third number appear in red on the cards. "The number you are now seeing is the life energy of the ShadowBeing; when it below zero the ShadowBeing goes to the graveyard; as near as we can figure out this number is based on level and type. Now Gearfried The Iron Knight spar with Fairy of the Fountain," as Gearfried The Iron Knight and Fairy of the Fountain went into a complicated series of move and countermoves both cards started to glow; Ranma's a deep blue while Tea's a deep gold. Ranma continued "As you can see in this sparring match the ShadowBeing with the higher value my Gearfried The Iron Knight does not get much if any benefit but if you look you will see that Fairy of the Fountain's life energy is slowly going down while its defense is slowly going up."

"And the colors signify?" asked Seto.

"The type of Ki being used which also effects how the cards behave. Blue is confidence, red is anger, orange is despair or emotional distress, and gold is deep friendship," smiled Ranma as he drew a new card, "I should mention that this sort of thing only happens if the ShadowBeings are within 500 points of each other or you hold back by sparring which I did here to enhance the effect. Now brace yourself Tea, this is going to hurt though your ShadowBeing status should save you from the brunt of it; I tribute Gearfried The Iron Knight for Dragon Seeker (2000/2100) which attacks Fairy of the Fountain."

Fairy of the Fountain cried out as it disappeared from the field while Tea's hand went to her chest while her friends steadied her. "I'm alright guys though I actually felt my ShadowBeings's pain."

Ranma narrowed his eyes "Just remember Seto, Yugi, and Wiseman you do not have the insulation of being ShadowBeings so you will have to choose a Deck Sensei to take the brunt of life point loss."

"Deck Sensei?" asked Tristan.

"A ShadowBeing from your deck that manipulates cards for you and provides advice. Since they are summoned beforehand they can be special summoned to the field. However this foregoes the protection they normally provide from the results of life point loss," gestured Ranma to his deck.

"Not that you, Joey, and Tea have to worry. ShadowBeings have an innate instinct about the decks they are part of." smiled Parvati, "Tea put your hand on your deck, let your mind wander, and then tell me what pops into it."

Tea did as she was instructed and blinked, "My deck is female aqua-fairy themed with weaknesses to fire and dark."

Ranma smiled, "Very good, Tea. The other ShadowBeing duelists will find that they have similar knowledge about their decks," said Ranma as he picked up his deck and pulled a card from it. "I am choosing Karate Man as my Deck Sensei and stepping out on to the field. Pay close attention to the summoning zone," said Ranma as Karate Man took his position.

"There is a ghostly image of a card here," said Bandit-Stein as Karate Man looked down at the cards "Says Saotome Ranma, level 5 wind warrior 2000/1600, special effect: when an aqua monster is face up on the field may transform into Saotome Ranko."

"She is a Dark spellcaster," explained Ranma. "her special ability is by discarding a card from your hand you can set any magic card in your deck to the field. However for some reason she is only level 4 1600/1200 so there is a risk to using my special ability," finished Ranma frowning. "You need to use your spells more in our Shadow Matches, sis that is why for once you are weaker than me in them and no I am not happy about it."

Tea frowned, "What is Karate Man's Deck Sensei ability?"she asked nervously eying the ShadowBeing that now controlled Ranma's deck.

Karate Man looked up at Tea with will-less eyes and spoke, "All level 4 or lower warrior non-effect monsters in Ranma's deck now have my Kamikaze attack. However summoning a Deck Sensei **within** a Shadow Match forgoes all attacks, your more," gestured Karate Man.

"Ranma what is _my_ Deck Sensei ability?" asked Tea as she pulled a card from her deck.

"Don't know," shrugged Ranma, "Which is the whole point of this little training match; to find out just what Deck Sensei abilities you, Joey, Keith, Tristan, and Mayuan have."

"Perhaps if I let my mind drift like before it will come to me," said Tea closing her eyes. Moving as if she was sleepwalking a card appeared in her hand as she spoke "I use the Magic of Sanjiyan to summon Fei-Oh (level 5 wind Oni 2000/1200) in attack mode," Tea's eyes shot open and she stared at the Flying Jaw that had appeared. "What in the world?! But how is that possible? That monster card is not even in my deck!"

"That monster is not even in duel monsters you mean," fumed Parvati.

"Neither is Magic of Sanjiyan," groaned Ranma, "Though given what you and Ranko could do in your Shadow Matches we should have expected this."

"Could you two tell us just what in the blazes just happened?!" exclaimed Bandit-stein.

Parvati signed, "Something we hoped we would not have to deal with. You see unlike a duel or Shadow Game a Shadow Match allows you to bring in abilities external to the game. The only one that really messes things up is oni summonings," Parvati looked at her brother across arena, "You said Tea's effect had changed, just what is her effect?"

"As long as she is face up the player can for 500 life points use one magic or trap card from either the deck or graveyard that either allows extra summonings or makes them easier," said Ranma gulping, "I didn't think it would be that big a deal as there are only a handful of cards that fit that description."

"That's alright Ranma. Who knew that her ability would manifest like this?" Parvati then looked at the magic card on the field, "Magic of Sanjiyan is a mixture of Elegant Egotist and double down for Oni type monsters."

"Somehow her Deck Sensei effect combined with the knowledge she gained from Mercury to allow her to use Sazan Oni in a Shadow Match," commented Ranma as Tea picked up her deck and looked through it.

"Guys there are monsters now in my deck that I only heard you talk about," Tea said shaking her head.

"At least we activated your Deck Sensei now rather than in the midst of a duel with the Big 5. It will give you a little time to get use to your new deck," commented Parvati.

"Are you telling me that we are going to suddenly have a whole bunch of cards in our decks?" asked Tristan.

"No. Tea is a special case because she herself is a new ShadowBeing: Sazan Sorcerous," said Ranma who looked at his sister, "Parvati, do you think we should continue?"

"Her deck has stabilized and she does need to see how her new cards function. Besides, if she has it, I want to see if Shi-Yao-Chong works like Despell or Magical Jammer," smiled Parvati.

"Speaking of which let's observe the effects of magic and trap cards in a Shadow Match," said Ranma as he looked at the card he had pulled.

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In Panik's Castle of Dark Illusions Tsukino Usagi was looking at the magic card in her hand again, something she had been doing for a quite awhile. The more she thought of the Silver Millennium the more things didn't fit.

Both Guardian Pluto and Setsuna the Time Guardian were now against the Crystal Tokyo Neo-Queen Serenity ruled over. From Guardian Pluto's comments Usagi had put together that the obsession recreating the Silver Millennium had been so strong what little ability to understand mortal humans she had had gone right out the window. But again the issue of how this situation had developed in the first place came up. Usagi was glad that she had convinced Luna and her friends to stay in Tokyo so she and Black Lady could spend some quality time together at Duelist Kingdom because if Luna was upset with her transformation to Sanjiyan Unkara she would have gone totally ballistic over what Usagi was planning now.

"Usagi what are you doing?" asked Black Lady as she entered the room.

"Wondering if what I am planning is even possible and if is if I have the right," Usagi said as Black Lady narrowed her eyes and walked over.

Black Lady looked at the card in Usagi's hand, "Monster Reborn? Now what are you wondering about with _that_ card in your hand?"

"Luna presented the Silver Millennium as an utopia but the more and more I think about it it looks more like it might have been a dystopia. Of course only one person could really give me any information about any dark side the Silver Millennium had even if it would be biased. One little problem she is dead and the Time Gates are having problems again."

"So you are wondering if Monster Reborn can revive this person and more importantly if you have the right to do so if it can," Black Lady said frowning, "You are now worrying that Queen Beryl was the Silver Millennium's equivalent of Wiseman; someone driven to extremes and total irrationality by unjust and unfair rules."

"Something like that. I mean we have read about General Hitler, the Hitler who never knew the Treaty of Versailles; whose country was not driven to economic ruin by overzealous victors. Without those factors what in this world was a monster became a decent human being," said Usagi still looking at the card in her hand.

Black Lady squatted down and lifted up Usagi's face, "Usagi, I know that the revelations about Crystal Tokyo shook your faith in what you have been told but there is also the possibility that Queen Beryl was just a power hungry crazy."

"True, but look at the facts. If the kingdom was fair and just then why had the amoral actions of the original Outers in general and Saturn in particular been tolerated?" Black Lady frowned as Usagi continued, "More over how could Luna have ever agreed with something like the Valkyrie Warriors? They are the very opposite of the ideal my Luna presented and yet their Luna must have helped form the Inners of that world."

Prince Demando who had been listening from a doorway coughed. "Who said they had to come from anything like the Moon Kingdom you came from?" Prince Demando then walked into the room "If the Moon Kingdom was not part of this universe who says that it like this reality did not have alternate histories as well?"

"Still does not explain the questions that are popping up the more I find things that contradict the ideas of Truth and Justice."

Black Lady pulled the card out of Usagi's hand and set it gingerly on the table "While it is true you can't know where you are going if you do not know where you have been I don't think learning more about the Moon Kingdom is going to solve anything. I do think it is long past time we did some research on the Shadow Realm and find out just what it is."

Liltha's hand covered the Monster Reborn card startling both Black Lady and Usagi. "Thank you, Black Lady," she said picking up the card. "For some reason Usagi wanting to use Monster Reborn on this Queen Beryl was making me uneasy," Liltha then frowned "You know some people have a tune they cannot get out of their head. In my case it is four names: Jadeite, Nephrite, Zoisite, and Kunzite."

Usagi slowly stood looking at Liltha in amazement who scowled at the reaction, "Those were the names of Queen Beryl's generals," Usagi said quietly.

Liltha nodded, "I see. If by some weird fluke I am this Queen Beryl you speak of I can tell you I have no answer to your questions. But know this, I am happy with the life I have now and will react violently to any efforts at upsetting that life. Understand?"

Usagi numbly nodded as Liltha sent a dark energy blast into the Monster Reborn card vaporizing it. "Sometimes the best answer to deal with an unknown past is to strive forward," Liltha said walking off.

"Do you think she was Queen Beryl?" asked Usagi.

"I say you don't tempt fate and forget all ideas at bringing back Queen Beryl," "Said Black Lady quietly "The amount of ShadowRealm dark magic Ki Liltha used to vaporize that card was ten times what Wiseman used to immobilize Crystal Tokyo."

"How about we go to a nice quiet room and lay down. I need to sort through this," Usagi said quietly.

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In their room Parvati looked at the ceiling from her bed frowning. "Sis I know that look. Something is bothering you," said Ranma from a small table where he was going though his deck.

Parvati sighed and sat up in her bed. "Mu Sil being Illumina combined with what we know about the origin of the Millennium Items implies something very frightening about the ShadowRealm."

"What does it imply?" asked Ranma in a worried tone.

"We know from their history that the Millennium Items were in fact a type of soul jar. We also know from Pegasus that sending souls to the ShadowRealm increased the power the owner of an item had," Parvati steepled her hands in front of her face. "From the fragmentary records of my people we also know that if souls are trapped within a soul jar long enough they will use what ever power they can from it to create their own world."

Ranma rubbed his head, "Ok sis say for a moment that the ShadowRealm is actually a creation of the souls trapped in the seven Millennium Items rather an a place that existed before their creation. What does it mean?"

"It means once the barrier is breached and the souls in the Items figure out what is going on those that retain any kind of selfwill will fight to keep it open."

"And Mu Sil reincarnation as a ShadowBeing means that anyone who dies outside can wander here and be reborn as a full fledged ShadowBeing," Ranma groaned, "Amnesty International is already asking some very troubling questions about the ShadowRealm and the League of OtherWorlds. This is going to send them totally off the walls; especially that Duelist Kingdom is in both worlds."

"My main concern is that this means our battle with the Big 5 and Noah Kaiba will establish the relationship Earth has with the ShadowRealm for centuries to come."

"You are saying that even though the ShadowRealm has a representative in the form of Princess Tsurugi if the Big 5 win they could turn this whole region into a replay of the arena games of ancient Rome?" asked Ranma scowling.

Parvati solemnly nodded, "Correct as they would be the quote ruling class unquote. The one thing I wish we had was a pattern to the self will status of ShadowBeings. So far there is no common thread; each was summoned by different means by different people for different reasons."

"Illumina's Ki looks like that of the ShadowBeings we summon. Does that mean that the other free willed ShadowBeings are actually reincarnated human souls?" Ranma asked.

"Would explain the Earl of Demise's hatred on site of light magic ShadowBeings. Perhaps he was one of Queen Beryl's troops or generals," commented Parvati.

"Which raises a fun question. Who were Liltha and Skyfeather?"

"They may not know. Remember Mayuan was the first self willed ShadowBeing to remember having a past. Skyfeather and Liltha were summoned before she was while Illumina and most undoubtedly the Earl were summoned afterword," Parvati said her voice going into the tone she normally used when Ranma was being particularly dense.

"I think Soun has a good idea on who she was. Why else shortly after Pegasus' wife was brought back did he suddenly stop trying to bring back his wife?" commented Ranma blissfully unaware of the tone his sister was giving him.

Parvati frowned, "Akane did say she felt safe as if she was with her mother again. A feeling she didn't get with any of the other ShadowBeings even Mystical Elf who was even calmer than Kasumi."

"If they know here," Ranma said pointing to his head "they are doing a good job of keeping it secret," at which point there was a gentle knock on the door. "Come in."

The door slowly opened and a nervous Akane stepped in. "I imagine our encounter with Illumina gave you the same idea I had."

"The mind and the heart can play tricks. What do your instincts as both a human and Sanjiyan Unkara tell you?" asked Parvati in a soft tone.

Akane started crying, "That Skyfeather has the soul of my mother."

Ranma got up and held Akane, "Anyone who thinks that reincarnation gives one solace needs their head examined," Ranma growled, "It is one thing to lose a love one but to have them back but they not have any memories of their life before is a cruelty that only the sickest demon could enjoy."

"Sadly there are quite a few demons who would enjoy something like that Ranma," Parvati said softly, "Just as there are humans who enjoy the pain of others."

"Do we tell her?" inquired Ranma as he stroked Akane's hair.

"That I do not know," admitted Parvati. "Fortunately we have time to sort through our feelings and decide."

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Early the next morning Mokuba, Illumina, Mayuan, and Seto were planning strategy and deciding on how to address the problem of the Big 5. "I think we should take this to the Big 5 right now," fumed Seto.

"I know, big brother. I would like nothing more than to deal with those jerks, but the fact of the matter is as the practice duels we had last night showed as ShadowBeings the Big 5 will have huge advantages. We may not know what abilities they have but we can work with what advantages we have."

Mayuan frowned got up and started pacing. "As a deck sensei I can be summoned directly but I am subject to any magic or trap cards the opponent may have."

"Ying and yang, Mayuan," commented Illumina "Everything has a weakness, even Exodia. The trick is to know those weakness and try to compensate for them."

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Ishtar Isis shivered her hand going reflexively to her Millennium Item every few minutes; the idea that the Millennium Items could have a weakness other than each other had never occurred to her. Of course the isolated life the Tomb-Keepers had kept them from considering a lot of things. Now the full weight of things hidden in the midst of history had surfaced with a vengeance. Isis heard a rustle as someone approached her. Looking up Isis frowned. Over her stood a humanoid being about 6 feet tall his skin black as night dressed in a Buddhist robe with a Taoist amulet around his neck. His jackal head showed many deep lines of a harsh existence in the desert but his eyes in stark contrast were soft. "Pegasus said you were the one with both a Millennium Item and a God card," intoned the being as he sat down in a lotus position his wrists on his knees the forefingers touching the thumbs. "I come seeking Enlightenment on you, your brother, and the God cards."

"Are you a ShadowBeing?"

"No. My sister-wife and I predate the Millennium Items by at least 2,000 years. We were likely the first Sanjiyan Unkara tribe you mortal humans turned into your gods. My wife's name is Nephthys which if you're up on your Egyptian mythology should tell you who I am."

"Set also known as Suteck, evil brother to Osiris," whispered Isis.

Set narrowed his eyes, "One of the biggest illusions of this world is the supposed battle between Good and Evil," Set then gestured to his amulet, "The Taoists knew better. You cannot have light without darkness, male without female, ying without yang. But most importantly within each there is a bit of the opposite."

Set paused and then frowned, "Setsuna saw part of the origin of the Millennium Items; a village called Kuru Eruna was slaughtered and the remains mixed with the gold that made the Millennium Items. As a result those souls cannot move on. You have any idea what that piece of news has done? People were nervous about the League of OtherWorlds but now they find out that normal humans of 3,000 years ago did something that even many demons find reprehensible, awakening a power that frightened even the Sanjiyan Unkara in the process. Now every intelligence agency in the world is on a mission to find the information in your head before some nutbar turns it into a weapon."

"Given what we have been able to put together about her brother Marik we may have that situation going on down right here right now," came a familiar voice as Pegasus stepped into the shelter that served as the seating area for the Ukyo's restaurant. "It's a wonder things have held together this long."

"People still remember that near disaster called the Cuban Missile Crisis. The powers in play in this little drama makes the atomic bomb look like a flipping firecracker," intoned Set solemnly. "Nobody wants this mess to blow up and so is handling it with kid gloves."

"I just hope the seven lucky gods haven't gone and done something stupid in their efforts to find more about the Shadow Games," growled Pegasus. "The last thing we need is some bunch of amnesiac Sanjiyan Unkara cause an international incident."

"Actually they have been behaving themselves very well in their trek from one museum to another in Egypt. My main concern is what will happen when that turns into a dry hole," commented Set.

"I would worry more about the Tomb-Keepers and their isolated life styles considering it is that which has helped create this current disaster," chuckled Pegasus.

"Normally I would be angry husband but in this case I understand," came the soft voice of Cynthia Pegasus as she walked up, "With the number of dead bodies this Marik is leaving in his wake we do not have time to play 20 questions. What has your Eye seen?"

"A people living in isolation to preserve the memory of a long dead ruler. A mentality of emotional cruelty that is directly responsible for our resident homicidal duelist," scowled Pegasus as he sat down.

Isis stood up in anger, "My people the Tomb-Keepers are not monsters."

"My Eye can look into most people's minds my dear. I am only relating what is in yours," Pegasus then smiled, "Or is your anger more to do with the fact that your Millennium Torque is having as much luck in seeing the future of this world as the Time Gates of the Moon Kingdom while my Eye still has retains some degree of power?"

Isis scowled at Pegasus who leaned back in his chair, "You better get use to it my dear. Our Millennium Items make us targets of the entire world's intelligence community. If they think we have become a danger or their governments believe they can put our Items to better use, well... accidents happen."

"Given what is going on in this area I somehow doubt that a Eye that can only read certain people's minds in its field of view or a Torque that could see into the most likely future but has been reduced to the level of a magic 8 ball are the top of anyone's list, Pegasus," laughed Set, "No if I were you I worry about the ShadowBeings as many of them have powers similar to your Items and with the right knowledge can be obtained by anyone."

"Without ShadowRealm Ki and a way to activate it these are just decks of cards," growled Pegasus pulling out one of his cards and tossing it on the table.

Set looked down at the card and frowned, "It didn't activate. But from what I have been hearing it should have activated."

"Was wondering about that too until I realized that every case where a ShadowBeing seemed to pop out of a deck spontaneously there seemed to be either an arena or Millennium Item nearby. In otherwords a powersource to trigger the ShadowRealm Ki was involved."

Set nodded and pulled out a deck of cards with a piece of paper around them. "But this world now has two entire cites to whom summoning is as natural as a subway or airplane. This entire area and the League of OtherWorlds are ShadowRealm Ki dynamos, all you need is to leave any deck in them long enough and use a trigger like this Sanjiyan Unkara summoning ward and instant ShadowBeing," Set finished as he held up a card which vanished as a beam shot out of it.

The Dark Magician Girl that appeared frowned. Looking at Set she immediately took up an defensive stance. "Set? What in the world are you doing here in Egypt?"

"Oh no not another one!' groaned Pegasus as he jumped up from his chair holding up a card in front of him, 'Look this is not Egypt and I suspect that it has been roughly 3,000 years since you have your Ka and Ba put into that card so calm down. Besides the people here are under the League's protection and I will not allow this area to turn into the war zone the surrounding region has deteriorated into."

The Dark Magician Girl looked at Pegasus and gasped. "Akunadin, Priest of the Eye what are your saying?"

Pegasus smiled softly, "I'm sorry my dear but whoever Akunadin was he is long dead and has likely by now gone through several reincarnations. Now sit down while I try to get you up to date with what is going on."

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Akane shook her head as her ShadowBeings pounded Bandit-stein into a piece of twitching pain. Cheating was bad enough but to cheat during a Shadow Match? Not even Genma was that stupid. Walking over to Bandit-stein's now unconscious form she pulled a card from his deck and the Ankh fkrom around his neck. "Ranma I think this is better in your possession than his or mine."

Ranma frowned as he took the Ankh from Akane's hand, "Thanks for you vote of confidence but I have a better idea," Ranma then turned around and hung the Ankh from Mayuan's neck.

Parvati nodded, "I get it Ranma. If Bandit-stein was willing to cheat then he certainly would have tried to use the Ankh's power if he could."

"ShadowBeings cannot be affected by the Millennium Items so I am guessing they cannot use them either. But I cannot think of anyone better suited to protect the Ankh from those who would abuse its power."

"Looks like Bandit-stein really didn't want to deal with the consequences of his actions," said Illumina as Bandit-stein disappeared and she picked up the card that appeared in his place.

Parvati frowned at the card, "Given that Bandit-stein choose victory over honor it doesn't surprise me. Once this mess is over we can let him out and have a long talk with him."

Illumina nodded and placed the card in a special card holder she carried with her which she then hid in her clothing. "You think that the Big 5 will be stupid enough to cheat as well?"

"While it would be nice to think so I doubt it. It was clear that Bandit-stein had a must get revenge kick as bad as Ryoga's was and like him it pushed all other things from his mind," grumbled Ranma, "His deck sensei ability to use half his life points to revive any fusion machine monster from his graveyard was enough to have won this duel if he hadn't been so obsessed that he never bothered to really use his ability."

"My plan was orignally to try and get the Big 5 to come to me. But I am thinking that is becoming less and less likely," commented Mokuba.

"It also gives those five baka time to figure out they can do a lot more with their decks than simply fight Shadow Matches with them," muttered Ranma.

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Pegasus finished as Dark Magician Girl looked from him back to Set. "So you are saying that much more hangs in the balance here than a simple game?"

"That is right. Say instead of calling Dark Magician Girl why don't I use the name you had 3,000 years ago?" asked Pegasus.

"My name is Mana. Do you have any plans on regaining the God cards?"

Set learned forward curious, "What is this about God cards? One of the stories about the ShadowRealm is that three Sanjiyan Unkara were trapped with in it."

The color drained from Pegasus' face. "That is why the god cards were either killing or driving my researchers mad. They were three royally pissed off Sanjiyan Unkara. That the researchers skimped and made up names for them likely just made them more pissed."

"What names did your researchers come up with?" asked Set.

"Kami of the Stone tower, Obelisk, the Slither Sky Dragon of Osiris, and the Dragon of Ra."

"No wonder Geb, Nut, and Ra messed with your reseachers. They actually came up with something as bad as the deity Karnak that all the mummy film writers used. They were liekly insulted which made an already bad situation worse."

"And I thought Genma was stupid. The people who created the Milleninium Items actaully tried to capture the magic of the Sanjiyan Unkara. To make matters worse the meglomaniacs actually went after Ra himself."

"More than just capture our magic," Set said extending his hand to Isis "The card, please."

Isis hesitated for a moment, "You can either give me the card or I will take it. From your corpse if nessary," growled Set hie eyes glowing a fierce red.

Isis handed the card to Set shaking visability. Set looked at the god card narrowing his eyes. A moment later he cursed slapping the card down, "Those egotistic mortal fools. The story was that three Sanjiyan Unkara had gotten trapped by the power of the Shadow Games but I never dreamed the mortal humans had..."" Set hissed his eyes blazing with a fury that would outdo a woman scorned.

"Set, part of my origial misguided plan was to use my Eye to trap the soul of Yugi's granfather in a card to force Yugi to come here. Can't I use my Eye to reliece well whoever it is?" asked a concerned Pegasus.

Set shook his head sadly, "No because as the card is only a doorway not the real prison. Besides without knowing how the items were created any attempt a letting any soul out would be risky. By the way Pegasus this is Geb."

Pegasus then pulled out his deck. "Well I could get Geb out here like I have the others of the ShadowRealm."

"You think that is wise?" asked Cynthia, "After all he and the other two did either kill or drive your researchers mad."

"Then I was using them like tools and not using their proper names. Now I know better; they are living intellegent beings who deverve my respect," said Pegasus as he summoned three ShadowBeings. Pegasus looked at the beings he just summoned and sighed "I need to tribute you three to summon Geb. Do you agree to this?"

"We exist to serve," said the three as one and it was then Pegasus saw the lack of any will in their eyes. Shaking his head he pushed the three cards toward Set. "Put the three cards over the one you hold and put a little of your magic into them forcing the Ki into the bottom card."

Set followed the instructions "Come forth blood blood member of my Tribe, Geb know to the ShadowRealm as Kami of the Stone tower, Obelisk."

Isis stared at the ShadowBeing before her and collapsed. "Was wondering when that was going to happen," said Pegasus as he knelt down, "She just fainted," he aid gently slapping the womans's face.

Isis stirred as a soft but strong voice spoke, "You have changed since you recreated the doorway, mortal."

Pegasus glanced behind confirming Obelisk or rather Geb was squatting. Geb had his hands sitting in his lap an unreadable expression on his face, "I know better now, Geb. Parvati of the Hindu tribe would no doubt send you her regards but she is a little occupied with the mess we have on the other island."

"She is a fellow Sanjiyan Unkara?"

"Right. Her fiancee Shiva went crazy and it took the life energy of nearly her entire tribe to put him to sleep. Then she went a little crazy like I did and spent the next 300 years trying to become human. Of cource my bought of crazy was trying to use you to bring back my wife. We are both much better now," commented Pegasus as he pulled the now terrified Isis to her feet.

"What of the other god cards?"

"What indeed," said a Beautiful Headhuntress her weapon dripping blood. "Who does he belong to?"

Pegasus looked at the weapon and sighed, "If I had my way Geb would be belong to no one. While Set summoned him if the rules of the Shadow Games apply..."

"They do not, mortal," interupted Geb pointing to Isis, "However by the rules of the ShadowRealm she has to willingly and under no intimidation hand over a card outside of a duel."

"There is one exception I have found," smiled Beautiful Headhuntress "You cut off the head of the little jerk of a duelist that you don't want and find a better one."

Pegasus glanced back at his deck and pulled three more cards, "Sounds like we have another out of control ShadowBeing who needs to be put back in its place."

The Beautiful Headhuntress' smile turned manical, "Is that a challange you pathetic fool?"

"It is a challange but I am hardly a fool," growled Pegasus, "I play Goddess of the Third Eye as Deck Sensei and this new magic card inspired by my niece the Mark of Wu and this card face down."

"Time to watch your precious monster lose its head," laughed Beautiful Headhuntress as she swung her weapon. She then blinked in surprise as the end of the weapon was caught by Pegasus.

"Your attack triggered my trap card, DNA Surgery," smiled Pegasus as he tossed his deck to the Goddess of the Third Eye, "Goddess you are my Deck Sensei, make me proud."

The Goddess smiled pulling a card, "Thank you Master," her smile grew even larger as she saw what card it was, "I play the magic card Toon World," Suddenly Pegasus vanished.

"Where did that idiot go?" thundered Beautiful Headhuntress.

"Into his favorite card. As long as it is on the field you cannot attack him directly except with another Toon ShadowBeing," smiled Cynthia. "This should be fun if you are into cartoons."

Goddess giggled, "That right its showtime! Toon Pegasus attack Beautiful Headhuntress," Pegesus emerged from the card looking like a characture of himself grinning from ear to ear.

Beautiful Headhuntress started laughing at the transformed Pegasus "What is that thing? It is ridiculous looking. What is is supposed to do, defeat monsters by having them laugh themselves into submission?"

Toon Pegasus also laughed, "Today kids we reenact Funny Bunny episode 23 with yours truely in the role of Funny Bunny. First there is the exploding bomb, catch."

Beautiful Headhuntress barely had time to realize she was holding a bomb with a sizzling fuse before it blew up. The soot covered ShadowBeing growled, "That's it you die painfully slowly."

"Next is the chase scene," laughed Toon Pegasus as he ran from the Beautiful Headhuntress as she yelled for him to hold still so she could cut out his intestines and use them to strangle him. "Then there is the tree which the hero hides in," Beautiful Headhuntress then slammed into a tree which appeared in her path, "Oh I forget about the part where the person chasing Funny Bunny ran into said tree," Pegasus then ducked behind the tree and emerged in drag. "You look tired dear want some tea?" Pegasus said shoving a tea cup into Beautiful Headhuntress's hand. "Will that be one or two lumps?" asked Pegasus showing a sugar bowl with cubes of sugar in it.

"Good grief not that old joke," said Cynthia quietly shaking her head.

Beautiful Headhuntress totally in a daze could only repeat the last two words Pegasus had said to her, "Two lumps."

"Two lumps it is," grinned Pegasus pulling an impossibly huge mallet out of the sugar bowl and hitting Beautiful Headhuntress with it several times. "Hmm seems to have less stamina than Dopey Dog, now how are we going to do the part where she gets run over by a train and the grand finally where where she is blown up by a whole shack of TNT?"

"SAY WHAT?!" screamed Beautiful Headhuntress leaping to her feet. She then slowly blinked as a horn sounded in the distance. Looking down she saw train tracks "What is that?"

"The 5:15 running about 10 minutes early," said Pegasus looking at a series of watches on his arm as Beautiful Headhuntress turned just in time to see the 5:15 run over her.

Beautiful Headhuntress slowly stood from the train tracks, her face covered in soot and bruises her clothes in rags and her weapon a twisted piece of metal. "What is this insanity?!"

"Insanity? How dare you defaim my childhood memories."

"Childhood memories?!" stammered Beautiful Headhuntress backing from Toon Pegasus in fear, "No one human could have memories like these; I am out of here," Beautiful Headhuntress then ran into a small shack that had appeared failing to notice the sign saying 'explosives' on it. "Where the blazes am I now? It is so dark in here I can not see a single thing."

"Here is some flint and a torch," said Pegasus running from the little shack as soon as he had tossed the items in it.

A clicking sound could be heard several times followed by the shack blowing up. There standing with a burning torch in her hand was Beautiful Headhuntress a sooted mess. "I yield," she said pitching forward changing back into a card before she hit the ground. Goddess of the Third Eye pulled out a Despell and removed Toon World restoring Pegasus to his human appearance.

Pegasus looked down and saw beside the card a deck. "Well let's see if I can figure out whose deck we have." he said sifting through the deck. "Oh crud."

"Problem master?"

"Kind of. At least we will not have to look for your wife Nut," Pegasus said showing the god card.

"Your victory. Your card as per the rules of the ShadowRealm," Geb intoned.

Pegasus nodded as Goddess of the third eye deactivated Mark of Wu and DNA Surgery. "Well Isis my dear you seen a Shadow Match. Given what I see in your mind if Geb has to have a master it should not be you or that deranged nutbar you call a brother,"

Isis shrunk back totally terrified of the power Pegasus had just demonstrated, "How did you participate directly in the duel?"

"Little something the Saotomes came up with. It is called a Shadow Match. Unlike a regular duel or Shadow Game the duelist can get directly involved. However it is not without its dangers. But you don't rise in the ranks of Shadow Match dueling by playing it safe," Pegasus then smiled that coy but sinster smile he had developed during his quest to bring back his wife.

"So you intend to duel me for Obelisk?"

"Hardly, my dear and his name is Geb not Obelisk. I should have known something was wrong when the researches gave me those names. Just as the place Karnac got turned into a nonexistant deity for a bunch of mummy horror films some researcher saddled Geb here with the name Obelisk," Pegasus chuckled, "I am still learning how to channel the true potential of the Item while Kaiba and Yugi both have a natural gift for the game. It would suprise me if Seto has not gotten to the point where he can not only hold his own but actually beat Saotome Parvati in a Shadow Match."

Geb arched an eyebrow, "This Seto is good?"

"Good? My dear Geb before he met Yugi-boy he was the undefeated champion of Duel Monsters," laughed Pegasus. "Though I doubt he would be interested in you."

"Why would he not be interested in a god card," scowled Geb.

"Because Geb he has a ShadowBeing who could pound you silly even without her special ability. 5000 attack and defence does that you know."

"You mentioned a special ability. What is it?" came Geb's stern voice.

"Her attack and defece tripple when facing a divine monster like you, your wife Nut, or Ra," laughed Pegasus as both Geb and Isis got the same stunned expression on their faces. "That is why I named the Gray Wizardess Dragon, Mayuan in tribute to a three eye reptilian creature know as the Killer of the Gods."

Back on the ShadowRealm island said being was having a very animated talk with Seto as the group made its way to Capit. "You mean with this computer anyone can create a world like this?"

"No. From what Ranma has said it only the interaction with this ShadowRealm Ki that has allowed this to happen. What I designed sent your mind into a world that existed only with in the computer, somewhat like a waking dream."

"Well thanks to the Big 5 jerks your dream has been twisted into a nightmare," grumbled Ranma, "Speaking of which here is one of them now."

"Well if it isn't the tin solider known as Machine Sergeant," came Parvati's mocking tone. Ranma looked over at his sister who was now sporting that manical smile she always got just before she got really intence which did tend to result in torn off body parts. That she was holding a Ki blast large enough to blow up a sizable part of the landscape didn't help.

"What an interesting display of power," laughed a young boy who was holding a rod.

Tea then got mad and demonstrated that the Sazan in her ShadowBeing's name refered not just to her powers as she opened a third eye, "Try to control my mind again and I will wrap that Millennium Item around your head, MORTAL. Who are you and why are you here?"

The young man blinked in surprise, "I am Ishtar Marik and I am here to get the god cards. I know my sister came to Duelist Kingdom to stop my plans at getting all three god cards and using them to punish the Pharaoh and rule the world. And to stop those plans she would have given the third card Obelisk to the best duelest she could find which means either Seto or Yugi."

"Oh great, first a Mistress 9 want-a-be and now we get a fledgeling Queen Beryl revenge stick and all," scowled Ranma, "Sometimes, Akane, I think our counterparts had it easy."

"Multiple fiancees, egomaniacal or deranged martial artists, magic spells and items galore do start to seem simple compared to what has been going on of late, Ranma," agreed Akane.

"If it wasn't for Yugi and the way Pegasus turned around once we came to his notice I'd wonder if possessing a Millennium Item drives the owner daffy," grumbled Ranma.

"What a minute. Did you say Obelisk? How can they be god cards when they are not even named for gods?" asked Parvati in her typical cold tone, "Sounds like those horror film writers that turned the place Karnac into a deity. No Sanjiyan Unkara to my knowledge had the name Karnac or Obelisk. Though there was a story of three Sanjiyan Unkara that were... trapped... by the Shadow Games? Kuso," Parvati hissed. "Geb, Nut, and Ra those are the God cards real names!"

Merik frowned, "Sanjiyan Unkara? You mean the race of three eyed immortal humans who were supposedly the basis for our gods?"

Parvati chuckled, "Partly right. We were not the basis for your gods; you mortal humans made us _into_ your gods," Parvati glared at Merik, "Despite that like you were are beings of flesh and blood as well. The tendancy you mortals have of deifying or demonizing everything you do not understand is one of your less endearing traits."

"Hate to burst your bubble Merik but neither Yugi or I have these God cards you speak of," Seto then smiled, "Besides with the powers Mayuan has at her beck and call I doubt I need them."

Mayuan blushed slightly while Marik burst out laughing, "So you think this Mayuan's dueling skills are equal to mine?".

"I don'st mean as a duelist you laughing loon but as a ShadowBeing. Her deck sensei ability is really interesting," smugly smiled Seto.

"Hahaha, Each one of the God cards is immune to trap, spell, and effect monsters. That means only another god card has a chance," Marik laughed.

"The Gods cards are stronger than Mayuan's 5000 attack 5000 defense?" smirked Seto.

Marik stopped laughing at that statement, "5000?! Well that is stronger than Obelisk the Tormentor but is no where powerful enough to deal with the likes of Slither or the Dragon of Ra."

"Perhaps on its own no. But then you do not know of Mayuan's special ability or these magic cards, Assension of Osiris and Dragon's Treasure," said Mokuba pulling out the cards.

Marik narrowed his eyes at he looked at the cards, "It appears that Pegasus has changed the game more than I expected. My main intrest is in the god cards and if you do not have them then I don's have time to waste with you," Marik then looked at Yugi, "Be thankful for this repreave Pharaoh for when I get all three god cards I will destroy you and claim your power as my own."

Mayuan cocked her head looking after the retreating form of Marik as it disappeared into a nearby wood. "What does Assension of Osiris does that made him back off like that?"

"It turns any ShadowBeing with an attack greater than 5000 into a divine card," said Mokuba.

"I get it," Mayuan smiled, "Dragon's Treasure put me over the limit allowing Assension of Osiris to work. He doesn's want to mess around with a card that could go divine on him he knows nothing about," Mayuan turned to Seto waving a finger at him, "Just because Pegasus proclaimed me able to take on the God cards doesn't mean I can do it all on my own."

"I fully realize that but given their power the Gods card would require at least a two tribute sacrifice to summon and that guy didn't strike me as all that knowledgable about Shadow Matches."

"Perhaps but he was right about one thing. If his sister is trying to stop him it stands to reason that she will seek out the best duelist around and that is you and Yugi," Tea then folded her hands, "That he thought that we already had the god cards makes me think his sister either is on or on her way to Duelist Kingdom. That hopefully give us the time we need to take care of our Baka 5 problem."

"Baka are we? For that little girl I choose you to duel with."

"Fine my me. You are about to find out just how much like a true Sanjiyan Unkara the Sazan Sorcerous really is."

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	28. Chap 28 Cold Steel

Chap 28 Cold Steel

Ranma 1/2 is the creation of Rumiko Takahashi, 3x3 eyes (Sazan Eyes) is the creation of Yuzo Takada, Sailor Moon is the creation of Naoko Takeuchi. There are also a few other characters from other anime. All are used without permission. This fan-fiction isn't intended for commercial use but is rather a tribute to Ranma 1/2, 3x3 Eyes, and Sailor Moon.

"I accept little girl. If I win I will escape this world in your body."

"You really have not been paying attention have you. This is not some virtual world," scowled Tea who then smiled, "If I win I will simply claim your deck's rarest card."

"Go first little girl."

"I play Magic of Sanjiyan and use it to summon Fei-Oh (level 5 wind Oni 2000/1200) in defense mode."

"And here I thought it was blonds who where supposed to airheads. Giga-Tech Wolf in attack mode. Destroy Fei-Oh," Nessbit then blinked as the Fei-Oh remained standing "What the blazes it going on?"

Tea smile shifted into a smirk as she pulled her next card, "This is a Shadow Match, mortal fool. I play Mystical Elf in defense mode."

"I sacrifice Giga-Tech Wolf to summon Machine King in attack mode and set this card."

"I use my deck sensei ability to pull Kuan-Yaa from my deck and equip my Mystical Elf with it. I then summon Huu-Yao-Chichiu in defense mode," Tea then chuckled, "You have no idea what these cards can do, do you?"

Nessbit looked up from his hand, "It doesn't matter machines are superior to any living creature."

Ranma shook his head, "Did I miss something? I thought the whole reason the tin man was dueling was because he is under the delusion that winning it will get him Tea's body," Ranma then frowned, "Uh let me rephrase that."

"Please don't, Wu. Thanks to that excuse of a father you are likely to shove the other foot in your mouth," grumbled Parvati shaking her head.

Nessbit played another machine monster which attacked Fei-Oh and again the creature survived, "What the blazes does it take to kill that blasted oversize tadpole?"

"More than you have, little fool," Tea's smile broadened at her next card, "Time to finally end this."

Nessbit startled, "End this? Have you lost your mind girl? This duel has barely begun and I still have all 8000 of life points."

"Not once I play both these magic cards, Tin Man. First I play Ningen No Zou and follow it up with the Pools of Jusenkyo."

"WHAT?! How the heck did _that_ get into the game?!" yelled both Ranma and Parvati as pools with bamboo poles sticking out of them appeared on Tea's side of the field.

"If you two think that is fun wait till you see what its Shadow Match effect is," Tea chuckled, "Mystical Elf, jump into the pool closest to your right," The moment the Mystical Elf jumped into the pool Tea's deck glowed and about half of the cards came out of it face down in front of her. Tea then tapped one and the other cards returned to her deck while the selected card floated over the pool still face down, "Now we see what the Pools of Jusenkyo has changed my Mystical Elf into."

Seto nodded a smile growing on his face, "I get it, Pools of Jusenkyo exchanges any monster you have on the field for a randomly chosen one from your deck."

"Somewhat risky given the range in my deck but I think it will be worth it," Everyone watched as the card disappeared and a figure rose from the pool.

While still elven, the figure had pale white skin as if she had not been out in sunlight in centuries. Her dress was black and red and looked like a fine evening gown. Her eyes then snapped opened and she smiled. Despite all his martial arts training Ranma could not suppress a shutter. There was no warmth in those blue eyes or smile, only the promise of pain, lots of it; pain she would enjoy inflicting. "Mistress, is this fool bothering you?" came a honey sweet voice.

"Not anymore. His deck is machine based; you're equipped with Kuan-Yaa and Ningen no Zou is in play. Have fun."

"Oh I will. Machine King I am Drowra, the Necromantic Elf. Welcome to my domain, the land of agony," spoke the honey sweet voice as she grabbed Machine King's head, "Kuan-Yaa."

Machine King put on a spectacular light show as the Kuan-Yaa arced over and through its body. It then fell forward an inert heap on the ground Drowra then turned her attention to Nessbit who turned and ran... right into an invisible barrier. "Ah no no no. It is not nice to leave in the middle of a Shadow Match."

Nessbit turned back as Drowra who ran her fingernails now his chest causing sparks to arc. "How, how you be this powerful?" he babbled.

"Well I am a level 7 but the reason I am so powerful against you is because of Kuan-Yaa. You see your metal, Kuan-Yaa is an electrical attack, and I am still wet. Metal plus water and electricity equals shocking results. As in my attack of 2500 being doubled. All I have to do is shock you until your life energy goes below zero and mistress wins this duel. Time to light up your life," Drowra chuckled as she grabbed Nessbit's face.

Nessbit didn't scream as he was in too much pain to do much but gurgle. Drowra then let go frowning, "Oh foo. The fun is over already. Mistress, next time could you please find me a more durable toy?" Then everything on the field faded.

"What's happening?" stammered Nessbit as an energy field enveloped him.

Tea smiled coldly, "Just the payment for losing this duel. You see you are the rarest card in your deck and by winning I get you."

"Nooooooo!" yelled Nessbit as he transformed into a card that flew into Tea's hand.

"Lesson one, little man. Don't play in the big leagues unless you really know what you are doing and getting into," Tea then smiled gently at her friends, "Don't worry guys I'll let him out in a couple of weeks."

"Anyone else freaked by the fact that Tea's personality is doing more flip flops than a fish out of water?" commented Joey.

"Maybe it is her time of the month," commented Ranma who promptly got an elbow in the ribs.

"Don't mind the Wu. Most of the time he is useful but his father's influence does make him say some pretty stupid things at times," smiled Parvati. Ranma frowned as he saw a slight tinge of worry in the smile which he hoped the others did not notice. However it was Tea's response that sent a cold chill down his spine.

"That is alright, Parvati. As long as your Wu remembers who is the master and who is the slave everything will be fine."

Yugi and Seto both looked surprised while Parvati scowled, "Spoken like a Sanjiyan Unkara who stopped paying attention to world affairs a century ago. The days when we can look down on mortals or our Wu are over."

Tea frowned for moment, widened her eyes, and turned to face Parvati, "Is that how the Sanjiyan Unkara view their Wu? As slaves?"

"Afraid so and unfortunately I was no exception. To put it bluntly our view of mortal humans was royally messed up. Fortunately Ranma showed me just how messed up our views were."

"Don't sweat it, Parvati. You, Shampoo, and Ranko showed me Pop's idea that women were weak weepy little things was similarly out of date not to mention that like most of the ideas Pops had, stupid," Ranma looked at Tea, "From what Ranko goes through I would say Tea's behavior and mood swings have more to them than the monthly visitor."

Parvati shook her head, "I know what you're implying Ranma and as far as I know my tribe's dual personality didn't work like that."

"What if what we are seeing is a memory of a previous life coming to the surface? Like what happened when she took a shot at Crump?"

"Would fit with what little we know about the Moon Kingdom. And look who is waddling to greet us. Wonder if he is as stupid as the last one," chucked Parvati.

Crump narrowed his eyes, "I didn't get where I was by taking wild risks but by knowing all the numbers and being able to predict where they would go."

"If your careful calculations told you that trying to attack Seto was a good idea I'd say you dropped the ball major time." Ranma smirked, "Pops may have dumb enough to engage me to multiple girls but I don't think he was ever dumb enough to cross somebody like Seto."

"Nessbit was a fool to not have at least looked at what the figures were telling him. It is clear that these are not normal Duels and this is not some virtual world. Perhaps my going against Seto was a mistake but he left me little choice when he refused my request."

"You mean you went against me simply because I didn't allow your stupid petting zoo? Crump, you are a bigger fool than I thought," growled Seto.

"It was not a petting zoo!" exploded Crump, "When I was growing up my parents never had any real time for me. So I would read and figure out mathematical equations. It was then I found out about penguins who constantly take care of their young and when I became the chief accountant for Kaiba corporation I had a chance to merge my two loves and you spat in my face!"

"Ok, Crump, what do you want?" scowled Parvati, "It is clear you realize you are hopelessly over your head, so your not here to duel and given what I can see you are not her to grovel for Seto's forgiveness either."

Crump nodded, "After you blasted us we went our separate ways trying to learn more about this island. Once I realized that you were correct about this island being real I came to realize you could use the power that made this virtual reality part of the real world and I would not need Seto or his corporation to make my dream a reality."

"What about your fellow Big 5, Crump?" scowled Tea."

"Gansley and Johnson have their own self serving agendas. At least I can argue that my goals were in part to help something besides myself," Crump narrowed his eyes, "With this power you could create a sanctuary for penguins and I am the best person to manage the economic side of such an endeavor."

"Given what would have likely happened to Mokuba you are luckily my master doesn't have me turn you into the main course of a meal," Mayuan said as her tail wrapped around Seto's waist.

"Unfortunately, Crump, we are not even sure how this latest development happened," fumed Seto, "I was wondering how I was going to make you five fools pay. Looks like I should have saved myself the effort as you five are your own worst enemies. By the way I noticed you didn't mention Lector."

Crump sighed, "That is because I saw Lector's last duel which was with some purple robed female that called herself Kaiyanwang Paradox. Being Jinzo didn't stop Lector or his monsters from being total razed by that thing she called an Egyptian God card."

Merik who had been hiding nearby smiled to himself, 'So this Kaiyanwang Paradox has one of the god cards. I only bought Strings with me and I need the other Rare Hunters to find her dueling style and possibly defeat her. Perhaps I should let my sister go though with whatever plan she has as it will likely bring out this Kaiyanwang Paradox.'

"Oh, that is just freaking wonderful," growled Ranma, "The last thing we need is that time traveling nutjob learning how to do Shadow Matches. Problem is thanks to her ability to time travel she can have all three Egyptian god cards in her possession and use them to win the Egyptian god cards of our timeline."

Merik blinked as he overheard that statement. 'Time travel? Could already have the three Egyptian god cards in her possession? That is crazy!' Merik frowned as he considered something. 'No more crazy than two cities of over 2 million turning into demon central overnight and supposedly being from an alternate history.'

Ranma walked over to Crump and squatted so that he was about eye level with the Nightmare Penguin, "I have some idea of what you went through, Crump, believe me. My father wanted me to be the best martial artist of my generation and went through some of the most extreme and stupid training methods to do it. I am still a little ticked off at my mother allowing that moron to run off with me and accepting a contract that said we would both commit suicide if I didn't come back as a 'Man among men' without stating what that was."

Crump narrowed his eyes his bushy eyebrows making him look almost comical, "What do you know of loneliness?"

Ranma smiled and gave Crump a thumbnail sketch of his 10 year training trip. By the time he was done everyone in hearing range was staring at Ranma as if he was some alien from a Z-grade horror flick. Seto was the first to find his voice, "Ranma, you have to be joking. No one could be as stupid as you have portrayed your father."

"Sadly Seto, everything Ranma related was accurate," Parvati then tapped her staff on the ground summoning a Fei-Oh, "Seto, this is getting dangerous. Paradox is mentally unstable and now we know she has something ridiculously powerful in that deck she clobbered together from yours, Yugi's and Pegasus'," Parvati than grabbed the startled Nightmare Penguin and set him atop the Fei-Oh. "I don't trust you, Crump; but I can't ignore the possibility that you really want to change, either. So you get a trip to Duelist Kingdom," Parvati then looked the Fei-Oh in its eye and pointed in the direction of Duelist Kingdom, "Take this to Pegasus and have him keep an Eye on him."

Merik meanwhile was just standing in his hiding place his Millennium Rod loosely held in his hand. If Ranma's story was even halfway accurate his life had been as bad if not worst than Merik's own.

"Unsettling to find out that someone else life is even more messed up than your own, isn't it."

Merik turned and stared at the source of the voice. Standing there was a young woman with long blond hair with two large red globes done up in it. In her hand was a dueling deck from which Merik could sense the power of one of the Egyptian God cards. "Who are you?"

The young woman smiled and pulled out the card Merik had sensed and revealed it to him. Merik blinked in unbelieving wonder at the one Egyptian God card it could not have been; the one in his own deck "Guess. If you excuse me I have to mess with your sister's mind," Before Merik could do anything the woman touched something on her wrist and disappeared from view.

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Pegasus sat in his chair while Isis stared open mouthed at Geb and Nut who were debating their role in the present world. Geb was all for letting mankind continue on providing advice on occasion while Nut wanted to use the ShadowBeings to impose order which could result in large parts of the planet under ShadowBeing control. As the arguments heated up Pegasus turned and frowned at what he saw. Isis turned as Pegasus slowly stood, "Paradox!" he hissed making the name sound like a curse.

"Let me guess you have been keeping tabs on my counterparts and know where they are," Paradox shrugged her shoulders the hood of her purple robe down, "No matter. I have the keys to the ShadowRealm and its power," Paradox smiled as she pulled out a God card.

Obelisk and Nut immediately stopped arguing and gave Paradox a glare. "You are unworthy to hold our parent in your hand."

"The Winged Dragon of Ra? That is the card my brother has. What happened to him?"

Paradox smiled, "He like the other owners of the cards these decks came from is dead and gone."

Pegasus put out a hand grasping Isis on the shoulder, "Paradox may not lie but she is from the future. 1,000 years at least. By that time all of us mortals will have grown old and died."

Paradox frowned, "Why did you have to tell her that? I had planned on watching her rant about me killing her brother and reveal he was long dead before I got my hands on his deck."

"Because I see a little of me in you Paradox. Only in your case your grief has driven you to actions that even in my old state I would have found reprehensible."

"Hmfph. Like shoving people's souls into cards is better than taking care of the needs of others?"

"Needs which as demonstrated by Queen Eclipse you could change. You have your own Mask of Darkness, Paradox. I have finally figured out that this is all a smoke screen to hide your real purpose."

"Which is what oh great brilliant one?"

"The conditions you set forth were unusual to say the least and you returned the 'evil' you removed from Yugi's grandfather before you had your duel. Tea was merged with Sailor Mercury and is now part ShadowRealm being. You have one of the god cards but you did not use it in your duel with Mai. You're trying to tick off Yugi-boy enough so he will not only defeat you but kill you. You are looking to commit suicide by proxy and have Tea succeed you," finished Pegasus dramatically pointing at Paradox.

Paradox narrowed her eyes putting the god card back in her deck and drawing three others chuckled, "Close so very close. But deducing my goals is not going to help you Pegasus. Tea is well on her way to becoming Mistress Millennium and it will not take much to turn Yugi into Pharaoh Wiseman. Then my pain will end because I will have no need to exist," Paradox then tossed the three cards onto the table but as she moved her hand to her wrist she was grabbed by a small man.

"Sweeto."

"What the... Happosai? Let go of me you little pervert. Letting my lust demons play with me is one thing but you are something else," Paradox then knocked the little man away and faded from view.

The screech of a Fei-Oh attracted the attention of everyone. Pegasus noted the Nightmare Penguin on the oni's back and looking at the cards on the table paled. "Good lord, that maniac is totally out of control."

The Nightmare Penguin narrowed his eyes "What maniac, you traitorous flop?"

Pegasus looked up at the Nightmare Penguin scowling, "So you managed to get yourself turned into a penguin, Crump; it suits you. You wouldn't happen to know where Nessbit is?"

"He fought Tea and got turned into a card when he lost. He is now a part of her deck. Why didn't you ask about the other Big 5?"

"Because, Crump," Pegasus said holding up the three cards, "a dangerous madwoman just dropped off the rest of the Big 5."

Crump blanched, "This dangerous madwoman would not be called Kaiyanwang Paradox would she?"

"I am surprised you are still with us, Crump; if you met her."

"After what she did to Lector I had no desire to get anywhere near that maniac."

Pegasus frowned, "Alright, Crump, get down from there so the Fei-Oh can get back to Parvati and company and tell them what the blazes is going on."

Happosai shook his head to clear it, "You need to tell them one more peace of information that I suspected when I first grabbed her but just now confirmed."

"Confirmed what?"

Happosai pulled out his pipe and blew a smoke ring, "What magic Paradox does have is being used to generate Ki. But her Ki this time is noticeable lower than the last time. In short Pegasus, Paradox is dying. At the rate her Ki is falling she will be dead within a month."

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Several minutes later Parvati was listening intently to the Fei-Oh rubbing her head, "Aside from Crumb the Big 5 are now trapped in cards, Paradox has one of the god cards, everything has been part of some crazy off the wall plan to make Yugi and Tea into people called Pharaoh Wiseman and Mistress Millennium, and to top it all off in a month she will be dead. Well that removes any ideas that she is pretending; Paradox _is_ stark raving nuts."

"You know that there is the one thing that puzzles me," thought Seto aloud, "For someone who can supposedly travel though time Paradox seems to have strange gaps in her knowledge."

"That has been the case with her from the moment we have encountered her," Parvati commented, "The strangest thing is the only power of either Sailor Moon or Neo-Queen Serenity Paradox has demonstrated is the cleansing. No Moon Tiara, no Moon Healing Escalation, and so on. Thanks to Happosai we now know the reason."

"She has been using her magic to replenish her Ki," said Tea calmly. "What did Pegasus mean about Paradox saying I was well on the way to becoming Mistress Millennium or Yugi becoming Pharaoh Wiseman?"

"Uh. Did I miss something?" asked Joey.

"No. I summed up what the Fei-Oh told me. But Tea understood every word," Parvati narrowed her eyes, "Something else is going on here," Parvati then looked deep into Tea's eyes and backed up in surprise. "Durga?" Parvati said almost in a whisper.

"Durga? Who is Durga?" asked Tristan.

"In Hindu mythology Durga was another aspect of Parvati, along with Kali, and Dweller of the Vindhyad," scowled Seto, "Of course as we have seen the myth did not always mirror the reality."

Parvati suddenly hugged Tea her eyes filled with tears, "Auntie Druga," Tea held Parvati and told her not to cry and a moment later realized she had not spoke in Japanese.

"What was that? Sure wasn't Japanese," asked a curious Mai.

"That was Sanskrit the ancient language much of Hindu myth was written in. It was my Aunt Durga's favorite mortal tongue," said Parvati wiping her tears and holding Tea at arm's length. "I knew that there had to be a reason were able to use Sanjiyan Unkara magic so naturally but I never dreamed that you were the reincarnation of one of my fellow Hindu Sanjiyan Unkara. It is like a dream come true."

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CereCere's brilliant plan to let the duelists eliminate dreams for her had backfired and now she was walking through a living nightmare. The last duelist she had looked into had this mad dream of destroying civilization so she shattered his dream mirror to stop him. She now carried the deck he had and wore the pretty jewel he had had around his neck. Now she approached the island's only restaurant which now doubled as a makeshift sanctuary from the horrors that now seemed to be everywhere on the island.

Pegasus looked up a strange fear pervading him. 'All that has happened has got me really jumpy. It's just a girl dressed like a circus acrobat. Wait a minute, I can't read her mind and while my Ki reading skills are nowhere near Ranma's I know enough to see there is something wrong here.' Pegasus narrowed his right eye, "Happosai, we have company."

Isis noticed the little man frown and then whisper, "More than that my friend. That is the woman I saw in my dream and if I am reading her Ki right it is the same kind Mu Si's body had with one important difference. This is female Ki while Mu Si's body was saturated with male Ki."

"More than one dream killer. Well we shouldn't be surprised," Pegasus whispered. He then took a step foreword. "Greetings my dear I am Maximilian Pegasus and I bid you welcome to Duelist Kingdom or rather what there is left of it."

"Pegasus? No Pegasus is a winged horse that lives in noble dreams not some adult human," said CereCere backing up, "Not there have been any here. Just selfish material dreams like that short blond haired girl's though only one surpassed the perverted mess that old man there calls dreams."

"So I was right, you are the person who invaded my dream and Mai's," scowled Happosai.

"Only you could call that perverted little fantasy of yours a dream. You're only redeeming feature is your dreams are not sick twisting of everything noble like the long blond haired woman that gave that sleeping boy a her purple robe as a blanket."

Pegasus and Happosai looked at each other and back at the girl, "Sounds like you met our local problem, Paradox," Pegasus said as he felt that tinge of fear grow, "Might I be so bold as to ask why your are running around invading people's dreams and killing some of them?"

"Pegasus, the _real_ Pegasus, only lives in noble dreams. If we didn't eliminate those noble dreams that he wasn't in we would never find him. Though the only person whose dream mirror I have smashed on this accursed island had a dream of destroying civilization by feeding the Great Beast human souls with something called the Seal of Oreichalkos."

"The Great Beast? So that thing again endangers Earth, Sazan, and the ShadowRealm," said Nut her female voice denoting her concern. "Last time according to legend was 12,000 years ago."

"Great Beast? Somehow I don't think you are talking about the Devil," commented Pegasus.

"No the Devil would be infinitely better to deal with," commented Set. "The Great Beast is a horrific creature that consumes all life, all soul energy. It was defeated by a joining of forces of the ShadowRealm and Earth through Sazan some 12,000 years ago though there is a rumor it tried to attack Earth again 3,000 years ago but it would have taken a concentrated effort like that of 12,000 years ago to stop it."

"Wait a minute I thought the ShadowRealm was the domain that existed in the Millennium Items," asked Cynthia Pegasus.

Obelisk snorted, "The Millennium Items are in fact a botched attempt at creating a 'bridge domain' of Earth, Sazan, and the real ShadowRealm. What has been created within the seven Items is a pale mockery of the real ShadowRealm."

Pegasus nodded, "To prevent confusion in the future we should call the domain inside the Items something else. How about Septrimono Realm?"

"Septrimono? What does that mean?" asked Geb.

"Three ancient words. Sept for seven, tri for three, and mono for one."

"Seven items, three realms, and one bridge," nodded Nut. "Effective but simple way to describe our domain. I like it."

"Uncle," said Hotura was she stepped into the clearing, "I was overhearing your conversation and this Great Beast sounds a lot like Pharaoh 90."

"There is a good reason for that," said Setsuna as she flew down. "They were and I do mean were the same being."

Pegasus nodded, "Since Parvati used the Ningen No Zou to boost Exodia's power to where he could take out that thing permantly, you figured that this Seal of Oreichalkos event would not happen."

Setsuna frowned and hung her head, "Yes, but the fact it is still happening means there is something else besides the Great Beast involved. Most likely some other force has co-opted the Seal of Oreichalkos for its own purposes."

Pegasus slowly stood and walked over to Setsuna, "And thanks to the Time Gates going bonkers you have no idea on what this new threat is. Could it be Snow Princess Kaguya that my niece told me about?"

"No, it is not her style. She just wants to put the Earth into another Ice Age, not go around collecting souls like they were baseball cards. It may be a by product of all the tinkering Paradox has done."

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Paradox stood before the Time Gates smiling. Pegasus's new alternate timeline and her channeling of ShadowRealm magic had been the last pieces in the cosmic puzzle she had been putting together. The energies of the other timelines she had brought to this history plus the one Pegasus has created were still there and now with Polerimization she could finally create the ideal timeline for her successors eliminating herself from existence in the process. Putting the Ginzuishou behind the card its face toward the Time Gates Paradox cried out, "Timeline Polerimization!" Once enough energy built up in the Time Gates the entire world would remember and have the history she choose.

Back at Duelist Kingdom Pegasus looked at the circus performer, "Well seems you have given us a piece of valuable information. Mind telling would why you are looking for my namesake and while you are at it telling us who you are?"

"I am CereCere and I along with the rest of the Amazoness Quartet search out Pegasus in noble dreams for Zirconia," said CereCere.

"For what reason?"

CereCere blinked, "For the power he possesses."

Pegasus rolled his eye. "Look around you dear. Does the power my name sake has compare to this? Perhaps it is time for a change of plans."

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"I think that a change of plans is in order," said Seto thoughtfully.

"What about this Kaibi Noah person, big brother?"

"Oh I plan to deal with him soon enough. But despite the changes the Big 5 made this program is running much like my original game. Which means to such this mess down we need only to follow through on the end game by defeating the Mythic Dragon," Seto then pulled out a card, "And with Dragon Capture Jar that should not be a problem. What in the world it that thing?" Seto finished pointing to what appeared to be a barrier above them.

Back on Duelist Island Pegasus looked up at the barrier, "Ok that is new. Mind telling us what is that thing?" scowled Pegasus.

"A time barrier. I just felt a change and realized Paradox is trying to duplicate the effect than changed Hiroshima and Nagasaki only this time she plans to hit the entire planet."

"What about going there and stopping the madwoman?"

"Too late. Whatever she is doing has reached the point of no return as it is. Interfering would just cause it to totally spiral out of control. This way at least we will remember."

Tears streaked down Paradox's face. It hurt so much to remember but soon it wouldn't matter; her subjects would have a new leaders and she herself would be better than dead. She would never have existed in the first place.

"Paradox, this madness ends!" boomed the voice of her counterpart Queen Eclipse.

"It is too late, Queen Eclipse," laughed Paradox. Then her counterpart grabbed her arm breaking the beam of energy, "You idiot. Without my directing influence..," Paradox never finished as the now out of control Time Gates blasted them both from existence. At the League of Otherworlds Ke Lun barely had enough time to fell something was wrong before a mammoth history changing wave hit the place.

Back at Duelist Kingdom Usagi curled up in pain, "The other Sensei, they are gone," she cried. There had been a time when the Black Moon Family would have been overjoyed to hear that news but Prince Demando now looked at the barrier while Black Lady calmed down her wailing mother and shivered at what had happened in the outside world to have so quickly and effectively wiped out the Sailor Senshi.

Down on the ground Pegasus said calmly, "Looks like crazy mastermind decided to really play god," When he saw Isis look at him with questioning eyes he continued, "Contrary to what everyone believes Hiroshima and Nagasaki were not transported here from another history. They were physically and mentally reshaped into what they are now. Change the world and everyone's memory of history and you can make the world _anything_ you want."

"Worse, much worse," said Setsuna falling to her knees straining to maintain the barrier let they too be effected, "No directing force. Energy is totally out of control.'

"Oh that is just peachy," snapped Pegasus, "Some madwoman wanted to reshape the world and lost control of the process?"

Setsuna nodded and then sighed as the waves of change subsided and she could finally drop the barrier, "It is over."

"No Setsuna-girl it has just begun," glared Pegasus.

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	29. Chap 29 Auld Lang Syne

Chap 29 Auld Lang Syne

Ranma 1/2 is the creation of Rumiko Takahashi, 3x3 eyes (Sazan Eyes) is the creation of Yuzo Takada, Sailor Moon is the creation of Naoko Takeuchi. There are also a few other characters from other anime. All are used without permission. This fan-fiction isn't intended for commercial use but is rather a tribute to Ranma 1/2, 3x3 Eyes, and Sailor Moon.

Seto frowned as the barrier disappeared, "What was that thing?"

"Have no idea, but it could not have been good," said Akane frowning.

"I got this ugly feeling that we are going to find out what that thing was all too soon," commented Ranma, "However I say let's get this disaster over with and finish the goal of Seto's little simulation so we will have at least one less thing to worry about."

About an hour later they came to a hedge maze. "The encounter with the queen involves a maze." commented Seto putting his hand on a wall. "But the maze was supposed to be underground and made out of stone."

"Well let's see what else has changed," commented Ranma as they entered the maze. Within moments a high pitched scream was heard. "Please tell me that is not the queen," groaned Akane.

"Afraid so," admitted Seto as they all ran toward the sound. Turning around a corner they saw Merik his left hand on his right shoulder scowling at what looked like Mokuba in a dress. "When I get a hold of the rest of the Big 5..," Seto muttered under his breath.

Merik turned revealing blood on his shoulder and glared at Yugi, "I have about had it with this messed up island as surely you have Pharaoh."

"Why do you insist on calling Yugi Pharaoh?" Mayuan asked her tail curling around Seto's waist, "Seto is the reincarnation of Pharaoh-Priest Horemheb not Yugi."

Merik frowned, "I have no interest in the Pharaoh that sealed the Shadow Games. I am more interested in the Pharaoh whose father created the Items," finished Merik his gaze again settling on Yugi.

"Look, Merik, you can have your little grudge match with Yugi latter," commented Ranma, "You are right in that we are tired of the island but unless we follow through the quest Seto designed it will be just one more thing to deal with," Ranma folded his arms across his chest, "It took me a while to realize it but Paradox has been using Pops' method of distraction all this time. Only in her case it has been throw one mess after another your way. With the way things have gone I would not be surprised if it turned out Hiroshima and Nagasaki were somehow her doing."

"Ranma, I think you are getting a little paranoid," pointed out Parvati, "If Paradox was really _that_ powerful she would not need all the smoke and mirrors."

"You said it yourself, sis; in a month she will be dead. The smoke and mirrors could simply be her last ditch plan for whatever her ultimate goal is," frowned Ranma spreading his hands.

"Perhaps but let's get this mess dealt with and then we deal with the time traveling robed maniac," Parvati then frowned, "That leaves the little issue of getting through this maze."

"The solution to that problem is coming this way" said Seto pointing to a little glowing creature.

"Hey, it's one of those informational fairies that help players," said Joey.

Parvati looked at the little creature and started rubbing her head while glaring at Seto, "Of all the methods of information you could have chosen and you stick us with flipping Tinkerbell?! When do Peter Pan and Captain Hook show up?"

Seto glared at Parvati and then frowned, "I thought you spent your life in remote places of the world. How do you know of Peter Pan?"

"Because Pegasus said in a way Pai was like a real live version of a kid who never grew up named Peter Pan," smiled Parvati, "It perked my interest and I found the book and play written by Barrie in Pegasus' library," Parvati then frowned, "Well I guess we don't have much choice but to follow the oversized firefly. Faerie beings are not cute but down right dangerous," muttered Parvati who shivered at the thought of what some of the real beings of Faerie could do.

Seto was not in a pleasant mood as they finally got out of the maze. The Big 5 had rewritten too much of his program to be sure even if they did complete the quest things would be over. "I am Queen Edina and thank you again for rescuing me," said the queen as they exited the maze and were greeted by the queen's guards.

"Seto," whispered Parvati holding him back a little, "her voice."

Seto winced as he whispered back, "Not my doing, Parvati; the Big 5 changed her voice as well as her looks. So instead of sounding mature and polite she sounds like she swallowed a tank of helium."

"You wrote this thing. Do we have to listen to that?"

"The Big 5 have messed things up so much I can't trust the quest even being what I programmed. When this is over I could try to talk Tea into turning what is left of the Big 5 over to Drowa to play with."

Parvati smiled grimly, "If we have to put up with that for long I'll help you talk to Tea.' she then nodded in the direction of the carriage which had arrived to take them to Queen Edina's castle.

"So what were you doing stumbling around that maze anyhow?" asked Ranma.

"I was kidnapped by a well meaning but misguided subject who was not happy with my plan to offer myself as this year's offering to the Mystic Dragon."

Seto frowned, "I was under the impression that the yearly offering was to _summon_ the Mystic Dragon."

"That was originally true but somewhere along the line the Mystic Dragon stayed rather than returning to whence it came," remarked Queen Edina. "Now the offerings are to appease it so it does not go running amok through out the countryside."

The rest of the journey was spent in relative silence though Ranma and Ranko mentally talked to each other. 'Sounds like the Big 5 royally messed up things, Ranma.'

'You mean because of Seto's question?'

'Yes. If the Mystic Dragon was to be summoned then it would have to been controlled by someone. But if it is just running around wild like the monsters on Duelist Kingdom...'

Ranko's thought to Ranma was interrupted by what sounded like thunder. Looking out of the carriage Ranma frowned, "Thunder but not a cloud in the sky? Seto, what is with the weather around here?"

"That was not thunder, Ranma; that was a sonic boom," Seto put his hand to his chin, "But that doesn't make sense. We are miles away from any airline route."

Joey looked out side and widened his eyes, "Good grief. Is that the Mystic Dragon?" pointed Joey.

Everyone in the carriage turned and looked as a dragon shaped figure in the sky. Parvati stared at the figure as it grew larger for a moment and smiled, "No, that is not the Mystic Dragon. That is a relative," Parvati leaned out of the carriage and shouted "Kuan-Yaa, Ki revision!" shooting the attack straight up into the sky.

The dragon seemed to hang in mid air for a moment and than started getting larger again. Now everyone could make out marking on the dragon's wings. The familiar red and white bars covered by a blue circle in which sat a white star on one wing and USAF on the other. The dragon looked down at the carriage as it flew over and started circling back. "Seto, who is that?" asked Mayuan her tail curling around Seto's arm.

"Emperor Yamato Hirohito," said Seto as he gripped Mayuan's tail. The scenes on TV did not do justice to the imposing power that now flew over them.

"_Emperor_ Yamato Hirohito?" asked Queen Edina frowning, "Emperor of what?"

" Japan," replied Joey staring up at the huge dragon that now circled the moving carriage.

"That is?" asked Queen Edina a slight annoyance creeping into her voice.

"Our country. Our homeland," replied Seto.

"Why is he circling like that? I know he can hover," asked Joey.

"Because the wind currents hovering would create would buffet this carriage like leaf in a wind storm, Joey," commented Tea who then rubbed her head.

"Sailor Mercury again?" asked Tristan.

"Who else?" Tea then put her hand on Parvati's shoulder, "Is this what you go through every day?"

Parvati frowned, "No, Pai and I have always been separate. Her thoughts don't leap out into mine nor does the reverse happen," Parvati then looked at Tea critically, "I could try to awaken my aunt to help you get control of Sailor Mercury's thoughts and memories. But that would mean a nearly constant voice in your head."

Tea considered for a movement, "Please. At least I would know where Tea ends and Ami begins."

"Ami?" asked Joey.

"Mizuno Ami. My real name," Tea then put her hands to her head, "No, I am not Mizuno Ami; I am Mazaki "Tea" Anzu," Tea then looked at Parvati, "Please help me."

Parvati grasped Mayuan's hand and pulled it to the Ankh Mayuan wore around her neck. She then guided the hand now holding the Ankh to Tea's head. After a moment of this Parvati let the hand go. "How do you feel?"

"I have been better," replied Tea calmly, "So this is what happens after you die. You reincarnate as something else," Tea than frowned, "This human's mind is a mess. Even with my guidance it is going to be a while before I have it sorted out," Tea then closed her eyes. They then snapped open filled with anger. Tea then grabbed Parvati by her shirt, "You said a voice in my head. You never said about it taking over."

"You have been with me and Ranma enough to know what I mean by voice in your head Tea. Don't get angry because you decided to go Genma on me," snapped Parvati grabbing one of Tea's wrists.

"Sis, comparing Tea's lack of understanding to Pops is a bit much," sighed Ranma. A second clap of thunder was heard interrupting Parvati's response. Everyone again looked out of the carriage and saw another dragon shape in the distance.

Mayuan frowned, "That is one of us."

"You mean a ShadowBeing?" asked Ranma who narrowed his eyes. "I think I see something else, on the back of the green dragon."

Mayuan nodded, "You are right; there is someone else there. Something like Pegasus."

"Like Pegasus?" asked Ranma puzzled.

"Someone with a Millennium Item," responded Mayuan.

Ranma and Parvati look at each other and then at Merik who nodded, "Yes I feel it now," Merik then frowned, "Strange I sense this person has held his item for decades; I thought that someone so skilled I would have known of before now."

Parvati leaned back in her carriage seat in thought, "Something is wrong. Shadi held the Ankh and Scales and he is dead, Isis has the Torque and she is around Yugi's age if her Ki means anything, Bakura has the Ring and he is again around the same age as Yugi, You have the Rod, Pegasus has had the Eye for only five years, and Yugi has the Puzzle. That accounts for all seven Items."

Merik touched the top of the Rod to his cheek in thought mentally counting off the items. "You are correct. That does account for all seven items and no one does fit what I feel."

"No one in _this_ history. Paradox has played with alternate timelines before," grumbled Ranma.

"Alternate timelines?" repeated Merik. Hiroshima and Nagasaki had shown such things were possible but to pull what you wanted from such worlds was a power far surpassing the Millennium Items, provided you could control it. Already Merik was forming a mental impression of Paradox; powerful but little skill in applying that power.

Merik along with everyone else in the carriage could now see the dragon. Mainly green with patches of brown the dragon was about the side of a small plane. In its back there was a man in long black billowing robes. "General Burakku Hiryuu!" said a strong powerful voice, "We barely find out about this island and next thing I know you, your wife, and Ke Lun have talked Ranodal into flying into a unknown situation blind."

"No, not blind," replied a soft but firm voice, "The three of us all likely the only ones off these islands who know what has happened. From the information relayed to me I was looking at Seto's program to get a better handle on what to expect. I may not have total knowledge but it is more than nothing; so I am not going in her blind."

"Seto? Who is Seto?"

"Seto Kaiba, the head of Kaiba Corporation. The leader in hologrammic technology."

"What are you talking about? The Goebbels Institute is the leader in hologrammic technology. Has been for nearly ten years."

"What is going on? One of those voices is acting like my company does not even exist," grumbled Seto as the carriage pulled into Capit. The crowd gestured to the two circling dragons as the carriage passed though. When the crowd figured out that these dragons posed no threat they cheered the return of their queen.

"Likely because in the history he comes from it doesn't" scowled Ranma as the carriage finally pulled into the castle grounds. They had barely dismounted from the carriage when both dragons landed. As the figure in black robes approached the group it became clear his robes were covered in strange symbols while around his neck hung what looked like the Millennium Ring. White hair and beard framed a face whose spectacles only accented the fanatical gleam in the man's eyes. The most troubling thing was the armband the man wore: a red background surrounding a white phoenix which in turn surrounded a swastika.

The man stopped and blinked staring at Ranma, "Saotome-sensei?"

Hearing a movement behind him Ranma turned and saw a man looking like an older version of himself, "Father? What are you doing here?"

"Wrong history, you two," responded Ranma who if he could ever get his hands on the maniac was going to show Paradox yes he did hit girls and hard too.

"Actually it is a little more complicated than that," said the black dragon.

"I am not going to like the explanation of that am I?" asked Ranma.

"All you know of your history aside from myself, Elder Ke Lun, and hopefully Duelist Kingdom is gone," said the black dragon.

"What do you mean gone?" exploded Seto.

"What happened to our Hiroshima and Nagasaki happened to nearly the entire world."

"Are you saying that our world our history..," asked the robed man.

"Is a sham, a fiction created by magical powers not even this new history can grasp," the black dragon looked at the robed wizard, "The Nazis, the Holocaust, all of it were part of this world's history, Heinrich Himmler."

"Paradox!" hissed Himmler his hand clenching into a fist so hard the nails drew blood, "That time traveling madwoman. It was not enough that Pegasus had to leave us to fight her but now she does this. She twists the memories of one of Ranma's best pupils into thinking this history is wrong."

Ranma started rubbing his head as Seto started yelling at Himmler, "Seto, yelling at the messager is not going to fix this mess. That is assuming it can be fixed," said the black dragon.

Seto turned and glared at the black dragon, "What do you mean if it can be fixed?"

"First we would have to find out how this was done. Then we would have to address the moral question of if we have the right to try and change it back. And finally we would have to see if any means exist to restore things."

"Actually first we need to end this little quest and clean up the mess Duelist Kingdom is in before we do anything," frowned Parvati, "Then we can deal with the time traveling nutbar's actions."

"I came back with the scales in the hope they could create a way to see into the true past of this world," said the young woman who looked like Sham Pu.

"Returned with the scales? Just who are you?" asked Seto.

"Ranma's counterpart tended to call me Old Ghoul."

"Elder Ke Lun is that you?" blinked Ranma, "But you are a near twin to Sham Pu."

"Thanks to what ever happening to nearly the whole planet. Don't know what spared me the mental changes that hit nearly everybody else but I remember the correct past."

"Your memories are the ones that have been tampered with Elder. Just like those of the people in Hiroshima and Nagasaki."

"Really? Why don't you try to go to the past you remember, Himmler; and see who has been tampered with."

"Look you two figure out whose history is right later," scowled Parvati, "Duelist Kingdom is a near total war zone with all the ShadowBeings running amok though Pegasus was holding his own. We don't need help but he likely does if only to deal with the emotional trauma the duelists have gone through."

"They can go but I would like him," Mayuan gestured to the black dragon, "to stay. Perhaps he might be able to reason with the Mystic Dragon if it can be reasoned with."

"Sounds like a plan," said Himmler, "If there are people in need of our help they come first and if he is there I would love to meet my inspiration again. Come."

Nodding Ke Lun and the Ranma look alike climbed on to the green and brown dragon and within moments it was airborne and out of sight. "He called you General Burakku Hiryuu. I could have sworn I have heard that name before."

"You did Ranma. It was the name we heard used in that timeline Pluto was in. You brought hot water I trust."

"Of course Parvati. It is a little hard walking around when you are a 20 meter long dragon," A moment later General Yamato and his wife were talking with the Queen while some of the group changed clothes.

"Ok any idea where this Mystic Dragon is?" asked Ranma after they finished dressing and were on a balcony overlooking the kingdom.

"I think that it is on the other side of that!" pointed Joey.

In the sky there were ShadowBeings of every description. "It is a whole army!" exclaimed Parvati.

"How in blazes are we supposed to fight that?!" asked Joey.

"You aren't," smiled Mayuan, "Gray magic lightning blast!" she yelled shooting a beam of gray energy at the descending army from her mouth blasting dozens, "Blast, they are too spread out for my attacks to be truly effective."

Merik watched as Tea followed up with a long range attack of her own. In theory his Rod should give him access to the kind of power he was seeing here. The problem with that theory was he was not sure how to control the process. He then watched as the Queen was carried off. What followed was a quick trip to where the phoenix flying machine was buried followed up by Time Wizard to bring it back. Merik then started having the same problem he had in the maze; some monsters would come out others would not. By the time they got to the imposing Castle which Seto revealed was not what he programmed Merik was rethinking his attack plans.

"Ok we are here, any ideas?" asked Ranma.

"Perhaps an explanation is a good place to start," said a soft female voice. From within the castle stepped a huge five headed dragon. It tossed a body toward them which whimpered in pain. "This Kaiba Noah did not have any answers, perhaps you do."

"What type of answers do you mean? And who are you? I had it set that the Mystic Dragon required two tributes to awaken. Now I find out not only is it running around without its two tributes but it seems to have developed a self-will of its own."

"Developed? I had self-will before I was attracted to this ShadowRealm body. The disruption of the proper method of the Silence in this area intrigued me and now it has enveloped the entire world." the five heads of the Mystic Dragon frowned, "The Silence is the way all things end, at least until today. People who were embraced have returned and those once alive have been embraced," the dragon turned its attention to the duelists, "Do you have an explanation for this?"

"Anyone have any idea what this dragon is babbling about?" asked Joey.

"It is obvious it is talking about the way history has been reshaped in the outside world," snapped Seto.

"Seto, it is not Joey's fault that he lost track of what has been going on," said Parvati sadly, "With all that has been going I have problems keeping things straight, myself."

"I remember you," said the Mystical Dragon its five heads focusing on Akane. "You took my host's soul into your own and forced me out."

Akane paled, "But that would mean you are..."

"Mistress 9."

"Is this where you go on about how you are going to destroy the world?" asked Ranma.

"How do I destroy what no longer exists," said the Mystic Dragon, "Your world, all you knew is gone."

"Not quite all Mistress Mystic Dragon. There are still people who remember the way the world is supposed to be," replied Ranma.

The Mystical Dragon lowered its five heads and looked at Ranma with all of them, "Tell me more."

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Pegasus was not a happy man. There were simply too many things going on. His island was totally out of control and thanks to Paradox the world had just been changed into heaven knew what. Then there was the little issue of the Big 5's little blunder sitting right next door which given the evidence also had the total nutjob with the Millennium Rod on it. It was time to take and active hand in the situation and to blazes with Seto's ego. "I am going over to that other island and end this mess right now."

"I will not let you hurt my brother!" yelled Isis as she grabbed Pegasus' arm.

"My dear your wants and needs are meaningless. It is long past the time I started acting instead of reacting to Paradox and whatever piece of insanity she throws our way. That has been how she has kept us from actually formulating a plan of attack; just keep piling on the situations and you get lost in the noise. Well it is high time somebody turned down the blasted boom box."

"I couldn't agree more my old friend," said a voice.

Pegasus and Isis both turned and saw a green and brown dragon land. Isis blinked as she saw the Millennium Ring around the neck of the bearded robed man. Pegasus smiled grimly, "Hello, Heinrich Himmler. I am going to have to really hurt Paradox when I get my hands on her."

"Pegasus J. Crawford. What in the name of all the Heavens and Hells is going on here? This is nearly as bad as China in the 1950's." gestured the robed man to the surroundings.

"This entire island has become a Shadow Match. But I have an ugly feeling that the key opponent is not here but on that other island. I was about to go over there."

"You don't need to; Sensei-sama has things well in hand," Himmler then frowned, "I take it this mess is Paradox's doing?"

"With her moral compass royally messed up you expected something pleasant?" Pegasus then looked over at the other island in the distance. "What bothers me is the last bombshell she dropped. She wants to turn two young kids into her successors."

"Why in the name of all the Heavens and Hells would she want to do that?"

"Because she is dying. In fact without some way to replenish her Ki she will be dead inside of a month."

"Actually I sensed little native Ki in her, Pegasus. She has been doing a variant of my trick for who knows how long but has reached the limits of its effectiveness. I suspect she is loosing Ki as fast as her magic can supply it. No matter what she does she will be dead inside of a month," said Happosai pulling out his pipe and smoking it.

Pegasus nodded, "I have the feeling that we have all the pieces to what Paradox ultimate goal is and can't see the forest for the trees," Pegasus paused, "All these histories are all related to her goal somehow," Pegasus turned to Setsuna, "Setsuna, what would happen if you tried to _directly_ connect two Time Gates together?"

"I can answer that," said what sounded like Ranko's voice. Everyone turned was what looked like Ranko in a variant Sailor outfit, "In theory you would create a symbiotic relationship between the two worlds involved. However if different times of what started out as part of the same timeline were involved this would cause a feedback loop. The Time Gates in the future would use whatever power available to reshape their present to fit the past."

"That is why such links are forbidden. No one wants to put the theory to the test. Besides intermittent links more reasonable and less problematic," commented Himmler.

"Hello again, Sailor Nemesis," grinned Pegasus.

"You met another version of me," replied the woman.

"From the timeline where the Nazis not only existed but won WWII," frowned Pegasus.

"Any idea on what Paradox was trying to do?"

"The pieces are all there." Pegasus nodded tapping a finger on his right hand for each point, "Hiroshima and Nagasaki are transformed to fit the history of another world. A while later several alternate histories are sent through the Time Gates to this world and then several people are sent from this world to another. Even later on Disrupter tricks his enemies into following him to Hiroshima August 6, 1945 and they all die in an atomic blast. Then we are told that Paradox has moved her subjects from the end of time to an alternate history, and finally, Paradox takes an interest in Duel Monsters while at the same time we learn the woman is dying."

"If you know, Pegasus, just tell us rather than acting like a defective," fumed Isis.

"Isis-girl the word is detective not defective. I felt that Paradox was suicidal but in a universe with ever branching histories for any timeline she succeeded there had to be a timeline she failed. Also she did not want to wipe her subjects from existence nor leave them leaderless as she cared a great deal for them. What action would ensure that she would succeed and also fit her other goals?"

"A reshaping of history so that she never existed in the first place but someone took her role!" exclaimed Himmler, "Moved out of their native timeline her subjects would be isolated from the changes. Polerimization to latch onto the Ki of the timeline that passed through and presto! A new history in the image you choose."

"But something went wrong. Perhaps she did not have enough power or was interrupted. Dimes will get you donuts that if you look at the world as it is now it is one giant kludge."

"What went wrong is it could never have worked. Without a past there is no present or future. Paradox's insane effort in wiping herself from history may have doomed this timeline."

"What do you mean?" asked Isis.

"In this world China is filled with crazy warlords who have slaughtered millions to create their own version of the Millennium Items," Himmler raised his eyes, "Conversely millions who died in your history now live. By using the ShadowRealm to create this world Paradox has given those souls the ability to fight any changes but those who have and are being slaughtered to make new Millennium Items will find out this world is a fraud and try to restore things to the way they were."

Pegasus then nodded, "Since there are members on both sides that will not give up the ultimate result will be a totally breakdown in causality resulting in oblivion for this particular timeline."

Himmler nodded grimly, "Unless a solution can be found this world has no future."

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The Mystic Dragon formally Mistress 9 nodded. "I see. It seems this Paradox is my enemy as well as yours," the five heads then smiled in a nasty manner. "I find what I feel in China to most interesting. As we speak I feel thousands being embraced by the Silence but their souls are going to a realm not too different from the one in that Rod."

"You mean somebody is going through China engaging in some massive Shadow Game?" asked Ranma.

The Mystic Dragon frowned, "No. I mean that whatever process was used in making that Rod is being duplicated all over China. Confused lost souls that need a firm guiding hand or claw as the case may be," The Mystic Dragon then focused it five heads on Seto, "You originally created this world for an amusement but forces outside your control transformed it into something beyond your original vision. I find it confusing but interesting. My guest is a little less enthusiastic. Aren't you, Queen Edina?"

The queen came out of the castle her face a mask of fury glaring at Seto all the while. "Tell me this Dragon is lying. That what my people went through was not part of some sick game you created."

"It was only a computer program. You and all of this were never intended to be real," stammered Seto.

The Mystic Dragon chuckled, "Would you all like to see where what caused this is strongest? The strange thing is it not on this planet."

Everyone stared at the Mystic Dragon slackjawed. "It might help..," was all Ranma got out before they all found themselves in a gray mist filled world. "Warn us next time you do that!" yelled Ranma. He then noticed something in the gray mist. Running up to it Ranma exclaimed, "Kuso. Those are the Time Gates."

"Time Gates? You mean that these gates allow you to travel through time?!" asked the stunned Mystic Dragon.

"Yes, even if that was not your goal," grumbled Ranma, "That Pluto was able to bring the Gates to us was one thing but I now realize that those copies were only a pale shadow of the real thing," Ranma pushed at the Gates frowning, "Should have expected that."

"Expected what?" asked Seto.

"Gates implies something that can be locked or blocked and they are not responding to my efforts to find out what has turned the world upside down," as Ranma formed a blue aura around him "That means there is some sort of key if you will needed to operate them. Perhaps that oversized pole arm Pluto carries around with her. Kami-sami knows she sure does not use the thing to fight with."

"Hey guys. Look at what I found," said Tea picking up something from the ground, "A Polyermination card."

Ranma frowned and pulled the card from Tea's hand, "Same energy as I felt from these Gates," Ranma looked back at the Time Gates, "I do not like it. I am getting the ugly feeling that all the time traveling Paradox was doing is somehow connected to this card."

"The past or the future?" asked Mystic Dragon.

"Neither, Paradox was messing around with trips sideways in time. To worlds where history took a different path."

"From what Pegasus has said some of them were quite interesting," said a female voice.

"Yes Ranko they were," Ranma then frowned, "What do you mean that wasn't you?"

"It wasn't her. It was me."

Ranma turned around and frowned, "Sailor Nemesis. What in the world are you doing here?"

"I belong here, Ranma. At least I have since 1942 when Sailor Pluto gave her life to stop a Nazi from another future from adding our history to her collection. At least that is what I remember."

"Then you accept that all of this is wrong."

Sailor Nemesis smiled sadly, "Yes I am aware my history was fabricated. However, as you and Himmler have both figured out this is not a simple matter of putting things back the way they were. Paradox unleashed forces she really did not understand and if they are not focused this world will have no future for anyone."

"What do you mean no future for anyone?" asked a worried Joey.

"I mean that the two forces will keep trying to change this world to fit the history they belong to until causality itself breaks down. With no consistent past there can be no future."

"So how do we fix this mess?" asked Ranma.

"Offer one of the two groups an alternative," said Yugi calmly.

"_One_ of the groups? Should that not be the group of this history, Yuge?"

"As much as I would want this to be our history Joey we do not have the right to choose."

"As much as I would like to agree with you Yugi we may not have a choice. Already parts of your history have appeared: The Arizona Memorial and a concentration camp in Poland. It is painfully clear your history has the dominance in this conflict. We need something to offer the people of this reshaped world an alternative."

"Why not go to the source?" asked Ranma.

"What do you mean?" asked Nemesis.

"I mean what about the world where this," gesturing to the Time Gates, "came from. I mean if there was anybody left after what brought the Kingdom this represents you would have think they would have come looking for their princess."

"Good idea except when I tried Pegasus's idea of looking into our past I found I could not see anything past today. Whatever Paradox did has messed up the way the Time Gates work. Pegasus said he may have an alternative but I have..."

Nemesis's comment was interrupted by a strange throbbing noise. Turning everyone watch as what looked like a 1950's era British Police Box appeared. The door opened and out stepped Pegasus, "I was hoping that would work. Oh you're here. Good, that saves me the trouble of figuring out how to get this to the other island. Now who wants to go to the Silver Millennium?"

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	30. Chap 30 When It All Began

Ranma 1/2 is the creation of Rumiko Takahashi, 3x3 eyes (Sazan Eyes) is the creation of Yuzo Takada, Sailor Moon is the creation of Naoko Takeuchi. There are also a few other characters from other anime. All are used without permission. This fan-fiction isn't intended for commercial use but is rather a tribute to Ranma 1/2, 3x3 Eyes, and Sailor Moon.

Chap 30 When it all began

"Where did you get this from again?" asked Ranma.

"British TV show called Doctor Who," said Pegasus looking over a huge book he had open.

"I think I saw that. Didn't the method of travel have problems?" asked Joey.

"Mainly because the Doctor didn't care where he arrived. This is from the Tom Baker era where the TARDIS was far more controllable."

"You think leaving the Mystic Dragon behind was a good idea?" asked Tea.

"No choice. In her current form she would have never fit though those doors. Besides Sailor Nemesis should keep her occupied if she gets any funny ideas."

"Speaking of funny ideas, you really think this is a good idea, Pegasus?" asked Ranma.

"To be honest, this is likely the second worst idea I have come up with in my life, but like the method I was originally using to bring back my wife I really did not see any other options. Everything involving Paradox goes back to the power of the Silver Millennium; a power that even Pluto only had a limited knowledge of. If we are to save our world we need to find out how the power of the Silver Millennium works and more importantly what it really is. Finally we need to see if any of this reality's futures is viable as a place for those of the remade Earth to live."

"How long will we have, Uncle?"

"A month, perhaps two. Since the TARDIS does not operate on physics of our or any other known reality Guardian Pluto had to made the ultimate sacrifice to make it work," Pegasus turned and walked over to another set of doors and opened them frowning, "She pulled out this Time Staff of hers and poured energy into the TARDIS and next thing I knew her body had crumbled to dust which was immediately absorbed into the TARDIS and my Eye could see her Ki and Chanka in it."

Ranma paled, "Are you telling me Pluto effectively made this an eighth Millennium Item?!"

"Something like that and I am not happy about it," Pegasus then turned his Eye seeming to flash, "That Pluto felt she had to take such drastic actions is the reason I do not want you to be messing around with the history we are going to arrive in any more than we need to. To find out all the powers of the Ginzuishou events must happen as Pluto remembered them. In short to save our world we must let the Moon Kingdom of this Earth fall." Pegasus smiled sadly, "The ironic thing is that the Sailor Pluto of this time is so wrapped up in one future that when she find out we are trying to repair damage to the timeline she will bend over backward to help us."

Pegasus looked up as the column stopped, "Well we are here." He then pushed a lever, "Now, Black Lady, do try not to insult Queen Serenity."

Ranma was the first to exit the TARDIS or whatever the device was called. Looking over at the people before him he could sense only concern but no hostility. He noticed compared to the Sailor Senshi he knew the ki levels of these people were much higher especially the lonely looking young girl over in the corner. It took him a while to realize that the girl bore a strong resemblance to Hotaru by which time Akane had gone over to the girl. As Ranma went over he noticed the mood in the room change dramatically. Glancing back he noticed that Mai, Mayuan, and Black Lady had stepped out. The mood again changed when Hotaru stepped out of the TARDIS. Ranma was now close enough to see an expression of total befuddlement on the girl's face.

"What did you say?"

"I said, 'Hi I am Akane. Want to be friends?'"

"Friends, who would want to be friends with..."

"A living weapon? Former Wu? Sailor Saturn?" replied Akane.

The girl blinked surprised by the response. Narrowing her eyes she asked, "Who are you?"

"She is our friend in my incarnation," came a voice behind Ranma.

Ranma smiled not turning. "You are getting really good. I didn't hear you at all, Hotaru."

"But you and Akane _felt_ me."

"Hotaru, you are skilled but you do not have the skill to total mask the power of both Sailor Saturn _and_ the ShadowRealm. Heck I'm not sure I am that skilled."

"Who are you people?" asked a voice that sounded somewhat like Sailor Moon's except it was deeper and more forceful.

"Greetings, Queen Serenity, I am Pegasus and we are here to save the future."

"How can we trust a man that consorts with demons?" came a voice that reminded Ranma of Neptune's.

"If you mean Mayuan, she is no demon. She is part of my family," replied Seto angrily.

"Besides this is only the form the ShadowRealm gave her. Her soul is quite human and the same is true of Mai," smiled Pegasus.

"Where are you from?" asked a voice Ranma recognized as Sailor Pluto's.

"Earth of a different universe thousands of years from now." Pegasus then frowned, "A world you have totally messed up."

"We messed up?" replied Pluto narrowing her eyes.

"No, _you_ messed up, Pluto," growled Pegasus. "In one future your actions turned Princess Serenity's reincarnation into a suicidal time traveling maniac whose actions have totally messed up our world."

"I want my friends back. I want my world back, Sailor Pluto."

Ranma turned and blanched. Gone was the carefree Tsukino Usagi and in her place was something that reminded him way too much of Paradox. All the girl had gone through was pushing her to the brink that Paradox had long gone over. "I think one Paradox is enough. We don't need another one," commented Ranma.

"I am not Paradox."

"Only because like Queen Eclipse she is one of your futures," replied Ranma.

Usagi scowled and walked up to Queen Serenity. She then slapped the woman so hard she knocked her down. "That is for turning this poor girl's life into such a screwed up mess, mother."

Pegasus grabbed Usagi's wrist. "Where is Usagi, Princess Serenity?"

"Where she has been since she felt her friends vanish from existence. In the depths of my mind crying her heart out."

Ranma watched as Pegasus and Usagi or rather Princess Serenity glared at each other while Queen Serenity slowly stood up rubbing her cheek. Princess Serenity then looked away.

"First Black Lady now you. What is with the both of you that you cannot stand your mothers?" asked Pegasus.

"What do you mean, Pegasus? I get along well with Usagi," replied Black Lady.

"But not Neo-Queen Serenity," commented Pegasus.

"That is because Nitwit-Queen Simpleton is an idealistic idiot that has given everyone on Earth an emotional lobotomy!" exploded Black Lady.

"That is Wiseman talking. You and Prince Demando have been listening to the rantings of a man who was a walking corpse for 900 years and was so fixated on revenge he was willing to destroy the Earth to save it," snapped back Pegasus.

"Guys, don't you think that it might be a good idea to calm down?" asked Tea pushing herself between the two.

'Before they try to take each other apart.' commented Ranko mentally.

'There is something deeper here. Black Lady I expected to be hostile but Princess Serenity is something unexpected. Yin and Yang. Light and dark. By the teachings of Tao the Moon Kingdom must have had both a light and dark side as do all things.'

"Hey guys I thought the whole reason we came here was so we could learn more about the Ginzuishou thingy," said Joey. "Not so you could slap your respective mothers around."

Usagi-Princess Serenity turned and glared at Joey, "The Ginzuishou is not a thingy. It is a powerful magic item that in the hands of that Paradox maniac was likely responsible for our world going crazy." The princess then gestured to Queen Serenity, "Mother botched the reincarnation spell so badly not even I remember all the powers the blasted thing has."

"What reincarnation spell?" asked Queen Serenity frowning.

"She is referring to events in your future, our past. Events I am sorry to say must happen so what is left of the timeline will be preserved," glared Pegasus.

The Sailor Pluto of this time frowned, "If your goals are to fix future events why did you come and not my future self?"

"Because Paradox has messed up the immediate past so badly that the Time Gates cannot see into it directly and traveling through them in their current state is extremely dangerous. This was the only alternative your future self and I could come up with and it cost her very life," frowned Pegasus gesturing to the box behind him.

Ranma watched as the Sailor Senshi gasped and decided to drop some more information, "Paradox went crazy and tried to wipe herself from existence. Either she planned as well as Pops or something else when wrong and she wound up rewriting our entire world's present but as near as we can tell the past is the way it is supposed to be. With no real past our world has no real future and if that is not bad enough from what we have been told there are a bunch of warlords trying to recreate a power we have little if any understanding of and slaughtering millions to do it."

"Far worse than that, Ranma. Those warlords are preventing the people they kill from reincarnating so they can turn them into eternal slaves," commented Pegasus.

Ranma rubbed his head. What Mistress Mystic Dragon had hinted at had been confirmed by Pegasus; the warlords were trying to duplicate the power of the Millennium Items and were slaughtering millions to do it. Millions who in the originally history would have lived on. As bad as his education had been Ranma knew a large hunk of the world's population resided in China. A country with 40 years of war would have a lot more dead than the China he had known and with the power he had seen in Duelist Kingdom whose dead souls would cause problems. Sailor Nemesis's comment about there being no future for the reshaped world was becoming clearer all the time. Of course they could not very well tell the Sailor Senshi that this was a duplication of the process used to create the Millennium Items.

Queen Serenity looked at Pegasus totally dismayed. "Who is this new enemy?"

"Kaiyanwang Paradox is the name she gave herself," Pegasus touched something on his wrist and what looked like a long blade sprung from his arm. Pegasus then pulled out a card, "Seeing her origin as we saw it might help. I activate Replay."

Ranma frowned as the Time Gate relay appeared, "Pegasus these Time Gates..."

"I know Ranma but Replay is the only ShadowRealm card that I have that can show those events as we saw them."

**---Begin Time Gates images of Crystal Tokyo--- **

Everyone widened their eyes at the carnage they saw. The broken bodies of the Inners were all over the place with a badly beaten Pluto over in a corner; the twisted remains of Tuxedo Mask laid in a pool of dark red liquid that nobody really wanted to identify. Standing there with a totally bewildered look on his face was a tall muscular green skinned demon. "What in the name of the infernal realms happened here?" he asked.

"Pluto didn't want me to find out that the Outers rather than one of one of Pharaoh 90's daimons was responsible for the death of my family," said Neo-Queen Serenity sitting on the ground the figure of Wiseman in her lap. "She was willing to kill all of us to prevent me from traveling to the past. It's lucky Sailor Saturn was out with her new friend or she might have been hurt, again."

"It's ironic," said Wiseman softly, "All this time I have been trying to destroy you and the Sailor Senshi and my last action was to save you," Wiseman reached into his robes and pulled out the Jakokusuishou, "You were as much a victim as those you sent to Nemisis. For good or bad you are the only one I can trust to make sure my people not left alone."

Wiseman stiffened and went limp the Jakokusuishou falling out of his hand which along with the rest of this body crumbled to dust.

"Neo-Queen Serenity?" asked the demon.

"No. Not any more," said Neo-Queen Serenity as she grabbed the Jakokusuishou and stood Wiseman's now empty cloak in her right hand anger clear in her voice, "Neo-Queen Serenity was the name of a vapid airhead who let herself be manipulated like a puppet while her supposed allies killed both her friends and family. Now my only remaining living friends are a living weapon of destruction, demons, and the rulers of Hell itself. A contradiction, a Paradox," Neo-Queen Serenity brought her hand to her face in thought. "Hmm. I like that as a name. But I need a different title to go with it. Would you know of any well known and fearsome title?"

"Yes. Kaiyanwang. It means Demon-eyed-king," said the demon cocking his head to one side.

"Kaiyanwang Paradox. Yes I _like_ that," Neo-Queen Serenity put the Jakokusuishou and Ginzuishou together in one hand raising it shouted "Jakokusuishou Moon Power Make Up!" Then followed the standard transformation sequence but the moment Neo-Queen Serenity landed dark and ominous energy flowed from both the Jakokusuishou and Ginzuishou into her.

"Whare are you doing?" asked the demon startled.

Neo-Queen Serenity smiled very unpleasantly, "Combining all the evil or negative energy the Ginzuishou gathered from my cleanings, mixing it with the Jakokusuishou, and putting the whole thing into me," she said as black energy flowed from her compact into her. Her outfit turned jet black while the blue trim turned to the color of dried blood. Neo-Queen Serenity then swung the cloak around her and rolling her head back laughed in a manner that put Kodachi to shame, "Neo-Queen Serenity is dead. Long live Kaiyanwang Paradox," At which point the Time Gates went blank.

**---End Time Gates images of Crystal Tokyo--- **

"The Pluto of our timeline and the one of another Crystal Tokyo didn't react well to this future at all and have been trying to come up with a way to fight the time traveling nutcase ever since," commented Pegasus as he removed the card.

"Bits and pieces of our final battle are starting to come to me," said Usagi-Princess Serenity frowning, "Facing a version of myself with the Millennium Puzzle, you with a beard and being called Wiseman. The current Mars attacks the other you and he pulls out a blank card. Her image appears in the card and her body falls. Her daughter then takes up the mantel of Mars."

Usagi-Princess Serenity turned facing Earth, "I finally remember the truth. Something that other Sailor Saturn said. You know what the Ginzuishou, Jakokusuishou, and Ningen no Zou really are?" Usagi-Princess Serenity turned back her face full of fury, "They are the _original_ Millennium Items! The Egyptians didn't create the Shadow Games; the_ Moon Kingdom_ did!"

Pegasus took a step back paling, "But that would mean the Cleansing is really… oh my God."

"Pluto and Luna believed that the end of the Moon Kingdom led to our solar system where only Earth has any life on it," said Tea, "But here all the planets have life. Oh no. We are talking about a battle where over 300 _billion_ people will die."

"No Tea, it is much worse than that," said Pegasus shooting angry gaze at Queen Serenity. "We are talking about the souls of 300 billion people being trapped in the ShadowRealm."

Usagi-Princess Serenity pulled out her compact. "I would like some answers," she said pulling out CopyCat and tossing it to the ground.

Copycat morphed into a woman who vaguely resembled Queen Serenity, Princess Serenity, and Usagi. "About time one of my decedents got some brains," said the woman.

"I know that voice," snarled Usagi-Princess Serenity. "You are Queen Metalla, the demon that possessed Queen Beryl."

The woman chuckled, "Actually 'Queen Metalla' as you call her is the yin half of me. I am the yang part of Kaiyanwang Metalla, first ruler of the Moon Kingdom."

Usagi-Princess Serenity narrowed her eyes, "You're my ancestor?"

"Yes in spirit. Since you reincarnated no in body."

"You created the Shadow Games?"

"Yes but not the way the Millennium Items were created. You see I asked my daughter to kill me and pour equal amounts of my blood over the Ginzuishou, Jakokusuishou, and Ningen no Zou. My sailor senshi then channeled their Ki and Chakru through these items solidifying the ShadowRealm. The Shadow Games were intended to prevent a bloody contest for the throne but my daughter died before she could impart all the knowledge on."

"So what the hell went wrong? Why did 300 billion people die?" snapped Usagi-Princess Serenity.

"Because both Queen Beryl and Queen Serenity were novice idiots. Because the Ginzuishou and Jakokusuishou have been forced into the opposite roles they are supposed to have."

Pegasus shook his head, "The Shadow Games are dangerous but even they don't have the power to wipe out the population of one planet much less nine. There is something more to this you are not telling us." Pegasus tapped his cheek in thought, "Queen Serenity, am I correct in assuming that under the right conditions the people of the Sailor Sensei's respective planets could marshal the Ki and Chakru of their respective planets to help them in a crisis?"

Ranma frowned as Queen Serenity gave Pegasus a puzzled look. "Yes, but I do not see..," started Queen Serenity

Pegasus raised a finger, "I know from what I have been able to gather that you cast a spell to ensure your daughter and the Sailor Senshi reincarnated together." Pegasus scowled, "What would be the first requirement of that spell?"

"That the Sailor Senshi would be dead," responded Ranma which earned him a harsh look from Parvati.

"Wu, if you are going to make dumb statements like your counterpart..."

"While I could have been delivered more tactfully Ranma is essentially correct. To reincarnate one has to die first. Now what would happen if both situations occurred at roughly the same time?"

Everyone looked at Pegasus confused while Ranma's and Paravati's eyes widened in realization. "Kama-sama. Pegasus you have any idea of _what_ you are saying?" asked an appalled Ranma.

"Yes, Ranma, and that is the reason Setsuna the Time Guardian, our Sailor Pluto, made the ultimate sacrifice," stated Pegasus narrowing his right eye. "So I could compare the Ginzuishou before the fall of the Moon Kingdom with the one of our time though considering the idea was Setsuna's I think she already knew what that answer was." Pegasus looked at Kaiyanwang Metalla. "You are the proof that Princess Serenity has said is correct. I did not imbue the deck I gave Usagi with ShadowRealm power and yet she summoned you from CopyCat."

Kaiyanwang Metalla smiled, "Yes and for the first time in many generations one of my line has tapped into the true power of the Silver Millennium." Kaiyanwang Metalla then scowled gesturing to the Sailor Senshi, "not this pathetic mockery."

"I think I am beginning to get a nasty idea about how this mess happened," said Pegasus glaring at Kaiyanwang Metalla. "You and your other half decided to have a Shadow Game between Queen Beryl and Queen Serenity but the interaction between what the mages did and the reincarnation spell triggered the fall of the Moon Kingdom."

Kaiyanwang Metalla chuckled, "What makes you think that the Moon Kingdom fell? Your counterparts were not tied to the planets here nor were you caught up in the botched spell that pulled my other half into another dimension."

"We survived," commended Pegasus.

Kaiyanwang Metalla smiled again showing her teeth, "That you did." She then turned to Queen Serenity, "I still have some ties here and the improvements they have made in the 12,000 years since that battle… They are wondrous. The humans have realizing the potential Pluto's sister always saw them having but the majority of your family repressed." Kaiyanwang Metalla then scowled looking at Queen Serenity, "However, the cost of getting there is unacceptable. I have watched as the wills of most of the souls your idiotic actions trapped dwindle to next to nothing."

Kaiyanwang Metalla then looked toward Earth, "They had power similar to ours and yet younger. It was created in a universe with slightly different physical laws than this one. Beryl has seen the Viking funeral they gave General Hitler and will soon learn of the Shadow Matches." Kaiyanwang Metalla turned back her smile a sneer as she looked at Pluto, "You believed that preserving the past was worth _any_ cost and created Kaiyanwang Paradox. Will you preserve their past and kill 300 billion people and trap their souls in the Inner World that I created?"

Pegasus grabbed Kaiyanwang Metalla's wrist, "That is the whole point, isn't it? You created the Shadow Games and _everything_ they represent."

"Their ability of trapping souls has you angry," smirked Kaiyanwang Metalla. "You didn't seem to mind when you thought it was the only way to bring back your wife."

"That was before Ranma showed me a different and better way to bring her back," snapped Pegasus, "The Shadow Games are _over_. They are done!"

Kaiyanwang Metalla laughed, "Do you really think it is that simple?"

Pegasus smiled sinisterly, "Yes I do. King Tut didn't have the imagination required to break the power of the Shadow Games." Pegasus pulled out CopyCat, "I on the other hand have access to not only my own imagination but to that of many others both famous and obscure."

Kaiyanwang Metalla paused, "You're bluffing."

"Want to bet on that, Metalla-Girl?" asked Pegasus his CopyCat card now surrounded by dark energy. "I figured out the key to your power is mainly visual." Pegasus reached in and pulled out a black and white picture of a tall man in a robe with his other hand. "Ever watched the German film _Seventh Seal_ with Bengt Ekerot here?"

Kaiyanwang Metalla frowned worry filling her features. "No."

"Thanks to his role I have the ability to summon one of the Four Horseman of the Biblical Apocalypse," said Pegasus glaring, "The one that rides the pale horse."

Kaiyanwang Metalla immediately paled and looking at the card took a step back, "Death himself."

"Got it in one, Metalla-Girl," said Pegasus pocketing the picture and pulling out some others. "Films, pictures, illustrations from novels, as well as American and Japanese manga. Every role imagined and turned into a visual image can be brought to life by this one card. Now do you understand?"

"Uh Pegs, is the TARDAS supposed to form a black aura?" asked Ramna.

Pegasus turned just in time for a beam of black energy to hit the card and pictures in his hands and the pocket where he kept his dueling deck. Pegasus then flew back as the black energy exploded into a brilliance of white light. As the light faded he saw a now all too familiar figure dressed in purple.

"Crap," said Pegasus slowly standing, "Looks like the head of the Squirrel Brigade is here. What insanity are you up to now, Paradox?"

The robed figure didn't reply its hooded face turning toward Kaiyanwang Metalla. "You," hissed the figure as it grabbed Kaiyanwang Metalla by the throat, "did this to me!"

"Great, my deranged counterpart keeps showing up like a freaking bad penny," scowled Usagi-Princess Serenity.

"I am not Paradox!" fumed the figure as it lifted Kaiyanwang Metalla off the ground.

"If you are not our robed loony toon then who are you?" asked Pegasus.

"I'll answer that in two words," said the figure, "DEATH SCREAM!" Kaiyanwang Metalla flew from her hand flying into a statue.

"Sailor Pluto," muttered Kaiyanwang Metella as she slowly stood.

"Figure that all by yourself or did you use flash cards?" growled the figure as an arrow made of ice flew from her hand and blasted the ground Kaiyanwang Metalla was standing on. The figure then looked at its right hand which it clenched into a fist, "Ooooh. I could get to _like_ this."

"Pluto, stand down!" yelled Queen Serenity.

"Or what, you are going to turn off my power? News flash, Queen Simpleton, I am part of the _eighth_ Millennium Item and am independent of your messed up artifacts. In short, Queen Stupid, you are not in control here, FIREBALL!" snapped the figure chucking a fireball of energy at the queen's feet knocking her to the ground. The figure raised its hand looking at it, "You know I think after I kick both your fannies all over the Moon I'll put understanding my new powers on my list of things to do."

"Pegasus, just who the hell were on those pictures?" asked Usagi-Princess Serenity grabbing the man by the front of his suit.

"Calm down, Princess," chuckled the figure, "It not like Pegasus was using Dark Phoenix or something on that power level. None of the people he was using alone could have a chance at challenging your Sailor Senshi or my younger self. That is why I tapped into Polarization to fuse what he was using into this entity."

"Dark Phoenix?" asked Kaiyanwang Metella staggering to her feet, "Who is she?"

"Someone whose power makes Death Born Revolution look like a firecracker," said the figure. "Thankfully for you I don't have her power. I can't fry universes with the ease Saturn can fry planets."

"Fry universes?" repeated Kaiyanwang Metella rapidly paling.

"As I said I am nowhere near _that_ powerful but then all I really want to do is _hurt_ you for letting your descendents mess around with my mind!"

"Moon Healing Escalation!" yelled Queen Serenity blasting the robed figure and knocking her down.

The figure growled the robe changing into a pair of bat like wings revealing the figure beneath the robe. Kaiyanwang Metella took a step backward, "You're not Sailor Pluto; you're her twin sister Satan!"

"You are half right. I don't call myself Sailor Pluto. Not after I discovered how your descendents have tampered with my mind over the centuries. My memories, my feelings, my very personally have been messed with. I am _Guardian_ Pluto and for you and your family have done to me and my friends in the name of the Moon I am going to punish you." Guardian Pluto took a step forward, "When I am done with you two idiots you are going to think what Kaiyanwang Paradox would have been a nice alternative."

"Swords of Revealing Light!" yelled Pegasus trapping Guardian Pluto like a fly in amber.

Guardian Pluto turned her head and looked at Pegasus, "You have a good reason for this."

"Stopping you from getting involved in a Shadow _Game_ sounds good enough for me."

"Dispel." Guardian Pluto closed her eyes and her form again morphed this time into her old Sailor Pluto form. Then the clothes morphed into stylize pseudo Chinese robes with a strange pattern on it. Opening her eyes Pluto looked at Pegasus her eyes full of pain, "I was right then."

Pegasus sighed, "I had hoped you were wrong but I felt it when I went to where the Time Gates were. It was not simply confirming the theory, though, you had to allow us to get back here."

"I suspect what little the Egyptians knew pales to the full knowledge the creator of this mess has," Guardian Pluto snarled as she grabbed Kaiyanwang Metella by the front of her dress pulling the now worried former queen to her until the were nearly nose to nose. "Ok Kaiyanwang Metella, you got a primer on how to use the power or do I start testing these new powers out on you?"

"I don't think you want the second option, Metella-girl," chuckled Pegasas, "I am starting to recognize some of the beings she has tapped into: the Time Trapper from American manga, Lina Inverse from the Slayers anime, and Ming the Merciless from Flash Gordon."

"What is wrong with you?" yelled Sailor Pluto.

"Nothing. I just don't like being used," Guardian Pluto said as her clothes again morphed this time into a skin tight leotard like outfit. The colors then morphed giving Guardian Pluto a red outfit with gold boots, gloves, and sash.

"What is that on her chest?" asked the Sailor Saturn of the past.

"A stylized version of the Phoenix," said Pegasus calmly. Pegasus then stated as if he was telling the weather, "That is the outfit of Dark Phoenix," causing the eyes of the Sailor Sensei to widen and even Sailor Saturn to take a slight step back.

"You don't seem concerned that she just changed into a being that can fry universes," stammered Kaiyanwang Metella the color draining from her face.

"That is because she didn't," stated Pegasus. "While it is true in the comic universe she came from the Dark Phoenix could fry universes the Shadow Realm power Guardian Pluto is tapping into is that of our universe's Millennium Items and simply doesn't have the power to mimic _that_ level of raw power." Pegasus then frowned, "That doesn't mean she is bluffing with that outfit The legends regarding the Millennium Items and the old Shadow Games do say they were sealed because they threatened the very world."

"From the mess that happened on Duelist Kingdom, I can see how things could have gotten away from the Egyptians," said Ranma. "Question is just how much of that power does Guardian Pluto have and how much is she willing to use."

"I say we don't find out and Metella-girl just gives us the low down on how the use this power," said Pegasus. 'Guardian Pluto can you 'hear' me?'

Guardian Pluto blinked and stared open mouthed at Pegasus, "How?"

'Easy, Guardian Pluto,' thought Pegasus smiling, 'I am simply using my Eye's power in tandem with the Dark Phoenix's natural telepathic ability.'

Guardian Pluto smiled turning her attention back to Kaiyanwang Metella, "So the Dark Phoenix is telepathic." Guardian Pluto then frowned, "No, I will not sink down to the level of the Pluto that created Kaiyanwang Paradox or even that of your old mentor Shadi. Guardian Pluto then closed her eyes and morphed back into her old outfit. Opening her eyes she let Kaiyanwang Metella go, "I'm sorry but things are such a mess back in my time that I momentarily lost it. It is just if we don't fix the damage Kaiyanwang Paradox has done no one will have _any_ future."

"It's that bad?" asked Sailor Pluto.

"Being in a Millennium Item allowed me some time to actually think," said Guardian Pluto. "I finally realized just what Kaiyanwang Paradox trying to set up: a ring of temporal vortexes with our timeline at the eye."

Everyone was startled by the sharp clank of the Time Staff hitting the ground. Turning they saw Sailor Pluto retrieve the item of her office and look Guardian Pluto right in the eyes. "Are you sure?" she whispered.

Guardian Pluto scowled, "More sure than I have ever been than anything. Now I know alternative timelines are real that means temporal vortexes are also real. Like a hurricane a temporal vortex can play total havoc around its 'eye' only the distortion is in time and history rather than physical damage."

"I take it, if it gets bad enough causality itself breaks down," said Pegasus. "That would explain why both Himmler and Mystic Dragon said our world had no future."

"Causality would break down but not the way you are thinking. Time vortexes cannot be controlled. What happened to Hiroshima and Nagasaki would happen not in only in the present but the past and future as well. The very fabric of history would be torn apart and reassembled into unpredictable patterns. There would be no way to go back and fix anything because that past would be cut off from us."

"That is what is happening?"

"No but it is what I am afraid Paradox was working toward. Remember she was not a solo act. She still has her ShadowRealm Sailor Senshi to carry out her plans."

"Paradox's insane plan can be prevented if we don't let Queen Serenity and Queen Beryl engage in a ShadowGame before they understand the power they are throwing around," said Usagi-Princess Serenity as she pulled out another card and tossed it. "I summon Mystical Elf in defense mode"

Kaiyanwang Metella scowled at the figure of a blue Elf that appeared chanting and then glared at Usagi-Princess Serenity. "With the knowledge you gained from Pegasus you shouldn't have been able to do that."

"Why not? I did it with my friends after Queen Beryl killed them. If my reincarnation can do that with them then it stands that I don't need a Duel Razor like Pegasus does."

The chanting stopped and the elf looked up and her eyes widened. She quickly was on one knee, "Queen Serenity! How may this humble subject serve you?"

"I think you better look at your hands my dear," said Pegasus sadly.

The Mystical Elf turned toward Pegasus as she raised a hand to look at it. Her expression then turned to one of utter horror. "Blue skin? But humans do not have blue skin. I'm a demon. NOOOOOOO!" The Mystical Elf then started sobbing.

Usagi-Princess Serenity's expression changed from shock to that of pity. Running up she hugged the crying ShadowBeing, "It's alright. It is not what you look like that is important but what you feel in your heart and soul."

"Princess Serenity?" asked the Mystical Elf.

"Not exactly. I am her reincarnation, Tsukino Usagi. The shock of what her mother's actions have resulted in caused her to mentally pass out." Usagi turned toward Pegasus. "Pegasus you have got to help her."

"Usagi, I barely understand the Septrimono Realm of the Millennium Items which was on the scale of a small village. With your Ginzuishou we are talking about that on a _planetary_ scale. Ranma, is there anything you can tell me that might help?"

"Sorry, Pegs but I don't improvise _that_ fast."

Pegasus nodded and knelt beside Usagi putting his hand on the Mystical Elf's shoulder. "Don't cry my dear. Your soul is as human as mine," smiled Pegasus as he gently pulled the Mystical Elf to her feet as he thought, 'At least as human as anyone on could be with all that ShadowRealm Ki.'

"Who are you?"

"I am Maximilian Pegasus. A good friend of Sailor Moon here," Pegasus then frowned noticing the scowl on the past Sailor Mars' face. "You might even say I am her advisor in our time. Usagi is still learning the powers that were in her Ginzuishou all along," Pegasus said looking at the Mystical Elf holding her hand. "What is your name, my dear?"

"Phoebe. Named after one of the moons of my world."

Sailor Mars' daughter suddenly turned pale. "Phoebe? Is that you?"

"Ari-chan?"

Mars looked at Pegasus and grabbed the man by this suit pulling him to his feet. "What have you done to my daughter's childhood friend?" she snarled.

"Hot tempered just like the Roman god you are named for," commented Pegasus grabbing Mars' wrist with one hand while pointing with the other. "The only thing I did was show Sailor Moon how to release that poor soul from the Ginzuishou. I did not create this problem; I am only using what I know to fix it as I am trying with the Millennium Items."

"Are you saying there are human souls in these Millennium Items?" asked Queen Serenity scowling.

Usagi rose scowling, "Don't take that tone with him. You heard both your daughter and your ancestor; the Shadow Games and all they entail originated not with the Millennium Items but here with the Ginzuishou, Jakokusuishou, and Ningen no Zou." Usagi turned to Pegasus. "Did Paradox actually state what she did to Yugi's grandfather?"

"She said it was a Cleansing."

"That is what Wiseman referred to my stunt as Neo-Queen Serenity. Was his soul intact?"

Pegasus took a sigh and shook his head. "No, it was not. It was akin to what I can do with my Millennium Eye but also different. But then again each Item has its own powers and abilities."

"But a part of his soul was missing," stated Usagi.

"Yes, Usagi-girl, part of his soul was missing."

Usagi swung around and grabbed Kaiyanwang Metalla. "Care to explain."

"It's not my fault. It was thanks to that idiotic spell the mages on the Senshi homeworlds cast and Queen Serenity's reincarnation spell interacting. You see they found out what Saturn did and decided it was a great idea. Only they didn't tell anyone they had done it. Hell, even _I_ didn't know until _after_ Queen Serenity had cast her damn reincarnation spell and by that time it was too late."

Usagi frowned and looked at Hotura who was looking at her past self. "What did you do?" asked Hotura.

"When the original Pluto decided to become human I didn't not want to give up being a Wu nor did the mages of my world want to have to deal with a novice Sailor Saturn," the woman smiled, "so they found a way to link my life force to every human on my world. Spread out like that there was little danger of my 'death' resulting in the death of anyone back home." Sailor Saturn scowled at Queen Serenity, "The idea that our Queen would do something that trigger the situation you describe or that the knowledge of what I did would be shared never entered our minds."

"They did a good job of keeping it secret. Too good a job." said Kaiyanwang Metalla who looked at Usagi. "Now you know how this mess happened."

"Actually, we know only a little more than when we got here," said Ranma.

"Ranma is right," scowled Pegasus. "We know that this, like Sazan, is a parallel universe. Why didn't Pluto realize that? Why did the Sailor Senshi reincarnate in our universe?"

"Pegasus, can you replay the moment when Pharaoh 90 appeared?" asked Usagi.

"Sure, but why?"

"I have a nasty idea that Pharaoh 90 was not what he appeared to be."

Pegasus nodded reactiving Replay. Just as a mammoth giant swirl appeared Usagi said, "Kuso, in my eagerness I forgot; Ami isn't here to scan this."

Tea frowned, "Maybe she is." Tea then gestured and a hensi stick appeared in her hand. "Well, here goes. Mercury Power make up!"

After Tea was done with her transformation she looked over at Joey who was holding his nose red is a beet. "Tea dear, you did know that you were naked through a good portion of that little light show, right?" asked Pegasus.

Tea sighed as she touched the side of her face bringing down the visor that was the link to the Mercury Computer, "Not much that could be done about it. Thanks to the knowledge we just picked up the Mercury Computer now recognizes the power of the Sailor Senshi as ShadowRealm energy. What in the name of Kama-sami?! I am getting similar readings out of Pharaoh 90! Distorted but definitely ShadowRealm Ki and a lot of it." Tea then rapidly paled. "It's distorted Moon Kingdom ShadowRealm Ki."

"Tea, are you sure?" asked Pegasus.

"You forget that I was merged with Ami via the power of your ShadowRealm, Pegasus," said Tea her features filled with sorrow. "I have the perfect baseline to compare your ShadowRealm energy to what we now know is Moon Kingdom ShadowRealm energy. Pharaoh 90 is definitely generating some form of Moon Kingdom ShadowRealm Ki. No, not generating; it's converting the surrounding Ki into Moon Kingdom ShadowRealm Ki." Tea continued looking at her visor as Exodia slammed its fist into Pharaoh 90. "The energy is losing its cohesive state and returning to the same kind of undirected state I've noticed in the Ginzuishou. Energy focus is…" Tea's eyes widened, "the Ningen no Zou."

Parvati scowled, "So I was right. Some how that thing did corrupt my fiancée and turned him into a power mad despot bent on world conquest."

Tea scowled, "I remember from one of my… no one of _Ami_'s physics books that energy conversions are never 100 percent efficient. There should be some personal Ki mixed in with the ShadowRealm Ki that will tell us who made that thing." Tea's eye scanned over the information the visor was giving her. "It's very faint almost nonexistent. The Mercury Computer states that the remnant Ki is the same as that used in the spell used to hit Guardian Pluto just moments ago."

Guardian Pluto slowly turned to look at Queen Serenity. "But that spell was cast by Queen Serenity. There is no way she would create something like Pharaoh 90."

"Correction, Guardian-girl. There is no way she would _intentionally_ create something like Pharaoh 90," said Pegasus.

"Let's see if I can get any more information," grumbled Usagi as she pulled another card, "I say it is time to find out. Harpie Lady in defense mode."

Pegasus cocked his head to the side as a Harpie Lady appeared frowning, "What the blazes?" it said as it lifted its clawed hands up and looked at them. "Oh, I like _this_," grinned the Harpie Lady. "Nothing like being able to get close and personal with your attacks."

"Hello?" asked Usagi nervously.

The Harpie Lady turned chuckling, "I believe you wanted some more information about Pharaoh 90. Well that is why I am here. I am Ariesh the first Senshi of Mars."

"WHAT?! My ancestor was not a demon!" screamed both Sailor Mars and her daughter.

"Great, a pair of hot headed descendents," grumbled Ariesh turning. "The last one got her soul ripped out… Wait a minute that was _you_! And then your daughter became Sailor Mars right before she died!" Ariesh said her gaze returning to Sailor Mars. Ariesh then turned back to Usagi, "You do realize that this will not change your present in any way, right?"

"Yes, I know that," said Usagi sadly and then smiled. "I also know that that is simply the form you chose to appear in."

Ariesh nodded scanning the Sailor Senshi of the past and future and her face turned to a frown when they fell on Hotaru. "Saturn?"

"Afraid so."

"You are still a Wu but what in the name of Aries happened to you?"

"It's a little complicated but as a ShadowBeing don't you know?"

Ariesh shook her head negatively. "The Millennium Items may have been inspired by the accident that ended the Moon Kingdom but they were made in the universe you reincarnated in. That means that the rules they operate under are slightly different than this one."

"So the ShadowRealms are different. Makes sense. But what doesn't make sense is why everyone reincarnated in our universe."

"The other Usagi appearing her with her friendly attitude toward demons really unnerved Queen Serenity. She could not accept the Millennium Queen's claims that they were not invading and when the attack came though the Time Gate incapacitating Pluto war was unavoidable."

"Attack through the Time Gatse?" asked Guardian Pluto "What attack?"

"An attack that if it had been any stronger could have killed you," responded Ariesh, "An attack from what looked like the time the Millennium Queen claimed to have been from."

"Let me guess, this attack was total chaotic time energy," sighed Ranma shaking his head. "Blunder robe did it again. Since she and Millennium Queen were different versions of the same person there was no way for you to tell the difference."

"Time loops should not be possible in a universe with ever branching timelines," commented Guardian Pluto.

"Until now I always though that there was only one past, one present, one future," said Sailor Pluto scowling at Guardian Pluto.

"Oh really?" asked Usagi angrily, "Then how do explain Queen Eclipse or Kaiyanwang Paradox? They are from two totally different futures. Same is true of Setsuna and Guardian Pluto. That is the reason I don't blame them or you for turning me into ... into that thing called Kaiyanwang Paradox," snarled Usagi pointing to where the Time Gates had been while glaring at Sailor Pluto. "A twisted reversal of everything the Moon Kingdom stood for. An insane suicidal maniac whose only drive beside trying to kill herself was to make sure her demon subjects were well supplied with food," Usagi then grabbed Sailor Pluto, "But I do hold you three idiots responsible for letting my friends, advisers, and myself run around with next to no idea who we were fighting or why we were fighting. My friends died because of that and now I found out that their supposed resurrection is a lie. They are not even really human anymore. All because you got a guilt trip over preventing the founders of the Moon Kingdom from stopping Queen Beryl from trashing the place. Well I am tired of it. I want my life back Pluto. I want to be a normal girl, again," cried Usagi falling to her knees and weeping.

Ranma looked at Usagi and was surprised to see Marik walk up to the weeping girl. Marik looked down at her frowning and looked up at Sailor Pluto. "I think I just found someone I hate more than the Pharaoh," Marik then turned his attention to Sailor Saturn and smiled. It was not the gloating smile he had shown previously but an actual smile. Walking over he grasped Sailor Saturn's hand and kissed it, "I sense a kindred spirit in you my dear."

Sailor Saturn blushed while Hotaru looked on in surprise, "What about me? I am her reincarnation."

Marik fingered his Rod and chuckled, "Look at her eyes."

Hotaru looked at her younger self's eyes and suppressed a shiver. There was a sense of loss there even deeper than the look she had had when her father had died. There was a touch of loneliness there too, much deeper than her own had been. But in addition to those feelings there was a hint of superiority bordering on arrogance. Sailor Saturn cocked her head frowning and touched Hotaru's forehead. "The mark of Wu," Sailor Saturn then smiled, "Where is your master?" she asked eagerly.

Akane chuckled opening her third eye, "Her Sanjiyan Unkara is right here. But I am _not_ her master; I am her equal and more importantly I am her friend."

Sailor Saturn blinked the force of the words startling her. Her smile if anything got broader for a moment and then turned to a frown. "Figures that my only friend in another life would be my Sanjiyan Unkara."

"Who said she was Hotaru's only friend?" snapped Ranma. "She has many friends both human and otherwise."

"You are also Wu," smiled Sailor Saturn who then frowned, "I miss being Wu."

"What is this about Queen Beryl trashing the place?" asked Queen Serenity.

"In about two months the Moon Kingdom will die," commented Pegasus looking through his deck.

Marik turned frowning, "But as you said there are alternatives. It does not have to happen the way it happened."

"We have also seen that messing around without having an idea of what you are doing just makes a mess," replied Pegasus, "Even if you have a plan the weave of history can produce unintended results. Despite having help from Pluto Ranma's efforts at changing WWII had unintended results in Asia turning it into one big war zone for 40 years."

Ranma sighed as Pegasus and Marik locked eyes for a moment but noted it was Pegasus who relented. Pegasus had made the key point about messing with history; in addition to the desired result you got other less desirable ones. This was the real reason Pegasus didn't want to mess with history; he was afraid that Queen Beryl was a symptom of a larger problem and stopping her would just result in something even worse coming along. But as always things did not work as planned and one of the key reasons the Moon Kingdom had fallen had been blurted out. It was the duty of a martial artist to protect the weak but and Ranma was not going to loose, even if it looked like they were in a no win situation.

------------------------------------------------

One week. They had been here one week and not found out anything more since the first day they got here. Queen Serenity could not do anything as Queen Beryl was playing it real smooth and could not take action without proof. During that time a sort of bonding had occurred between some of the wielders of the Millennium Items and the Senshi. Yugi and both Princess Serenities would often talk with each other and then the spirit in his puzzle would also join in. The spirit in the Ring had reappeared but was more interested in talking with Mars than acquiring the other Items, Mayuan would try to have small talk with Mercury, and Isis would talk with Jupiter for hours on the matter of her brother. Said brother was who Ranma was currently looking for. He had been spending a lot of time around Saturn and no one had seen them for about a day. The Inners had gotten nervous enough that Queen Serenity had relented and Ranma was running around the huge Moon Palace looking for those two. Ranma found himself in front of Saturn's rarely used chambers and in typical Saotome fashion threw the doors open.

Ranma blinked as the naked Saturn and Marik glared at him from the bed there were in. Ranma's jaw dropped not at what they were doing but at what was on Marik's back. "You have a reason for being here?" asked Saturn in a cold voice.

"Inners got a little nervous when they didn't see you," replied Ranma. 'What the blazes did they do to him? His body is covered in tattoos. He looks like a walking manual.'

Saturn laughed, "Have those Inners forgotten that in addition to being a living weapon I am also a woman? Can't I enjoy myself? It hurt at first but I found it enjoyable. Didn't you, Merik-chan?"

"Very enjoyable, my dear Saturn."

Saturn then got an evil grin as she got out of the bed and walked over to Ranma, "Even now your are not afraid of me but something is making you very nervous," she said running a finger down Ranma's chest.

"SorrytohaveinteruptedIhavetogonow," stammered Ranma as he bolted from the room with Saturn's laughter echoing in the hallway.

Ranma then plowed into Hotaru, "Did you find my previous incarnation? Those Inners are really getting nervous."

"Found her and Marik. Her personal chambers," stammered Ranma blushing.

"From the color of your face I would say they were not playing checkers."

"Well I think they did jump around in the bed a lot," quipped Ranma.

Hotaru shook her head, "You are rattled. You are making really stupid statements."

"Well try having a naked woman running her finger down your chest and see how you react," scowled Ranma.

"She likely wanted to have a little privately and purposely embarrassed you to get you out of there," chuckled Hotaru, "And you have to admit it worked."

"Yeh, well I better find the Inners before they walk in on that," said Ranma as he made a straight line for Queen Serenity's throne room. Not finding anyone in the room Ranma rushed to the Queen's private chambers. Before he threw open the door Ranko sighed, 'Remember what happened the last time you did that?'

'Right. Knock first.' however in this case 'knock' was hit the door with the Bakusai Tenketsu shattering it to a thousand pieces. 'Uh. Oops?' Looking in Ranma sighed in relief, the bed while rumpled was empty. "Hey Queen Serenity I found Sailor Saturn."

"And this news required you to destroy my door?" scowled the Queen in a bath robe.

"Well it did kind of rattle me. You should have seen Marik's back. It looked like his people tattooed their entire history on him. No wonder he hates the Pharaoh so much. Then Saturn got up from the bed and started acting all seductive and I decided to get out of there."

"_Saturn_ acting seductive?" asked Queen Serenity raising an eyebrow, "She is introverted to the point the woman is still a virgin."

"If the comment she made about Marik is any guide I would say she is not a virgin anymore," commented Ranma.

"Ok Ranma, I will talk to the Inners. I see Saturn taking an interest in this Marik as a good thing; she needs to socialize more and having someone who is not terrified of her is a step in the right direction."

Ranma nodded, "I never understood that. In fact there are a lot of things about this Moon Kingdom I do not understand."

"Like what?"

"Like how Pluto mistook our reality for this one," commented Ranma as he left. Walking quickly he came to the TARDIS which Pegasus had cables running out of to a big screen, "It's bothering you too, isn't?"

"Everything I have seen indicates Beryl simply could not have had the power to bring an entire Kingdom spanning all nine planets to its knees. Pluto indicated that each foe was stronger than the last and yet if the Ki levels I am sensing from Queen Serenity are any guide she alone could have taken on Pharaoh 90. Something is just not adding up."

"You suspect Queen Beryl was merely a pawn in somebody else's chess game?" Ranma scowled, "Come on Pegasus it is obvious whose chess game and who was involved."

"As shocking as it may sound while I agree with the idea of assistance I disagree on the assister. We both have seen how Paradox operates; she is about as subtle as one of your father's hair brained plans."

"Actually when he wants to be Pops can be quite sneaky. Also Pops never expected his actions to come back to haunt him or planned for the long haul. Paradox seemed to have done both. Also if I understand the idea of alternate timelines correctly just because Paradox is dead in one timeline does not mean she is dead in all timelines."

"Good points but Paradox is not the cause of all calamities, Ranma. Though I do agree with you about the Moon Kingdom. Something just is not right about it and I just don't mean its fall. Contrary to popular belief a King or Queen needs a lot of support staff to manage their Empire and yet we have seen no evidence of such an infrastructure. We have not seen one clerk or administrator since we got here. No financial or military advisors either for that matter. Who manages the day to day affairs of the Kingdom?"

"Maybe the Kingdom runs itself?"

"Hardly, Ranma. No government runs itself. Even the most egomaniacal rulers had to bow to reality and delegate authority in running their empires. And yet here there seems to be none of that. It is like somebody's idealized version of a Kingdom with none of the unpleasant realities that running any government requires."

"Perhaps they don't really run the Kingdom. Sort of like England or the way Japan is set up."

"If not for what Wiseman did in the 30th century I would agree with you. But while Wiseman may have been several cards shy of a full deck he was no fool. In a constitutional monarchy it makes little sense to attack the Royal Family as they are not the seat of power but rather the Parliament and its Prime Minster are. Yet Wiseman attacked the palace. That implies that they are the rulers."

"Very good. As mortals go you are quite impressive," smiled Saturn clapping her hands.

Pegasus and Ranma both turned and Ranma noted Pegasus paled, "That book under your arm."

"This? It was my Sanjiyan Unkara's. Marik thought you might find it useful."

Pegasus gingerly took the book and looked at its title, "_Book of Gods and Demons_, the same title as the book used to create the Millennium Items."

"Pegasus you don't think that his might be the same book, do you?"

"If the moon cats could come across then why not a book. Everything we have found has shown that the Shadow Games of the Items were pale copies of Moon Kingdom's Shadow Games

Ranma nodded, "I take it you brought the Ningen No Zou with you rather than leave it home?"

"It is in the TARDIS, Ranma. I doubt Queen Beryl could access it or the power of the Millennium Items in the two months left and I doubt she could understand enough of the power to do anything."

"She would not have to understand much. She would just need one ShadowBeing. Exodia."

Pegasus frowned standing, "Exodia is powerful but not _all_ powerful, Ranma. He can be stopped. Morphing Jar could stop him for example. I know you and the Sailor Senshi of the past think that letting the Millennium Queen run around unobserved is not a good idea but it was too much paranoia that triggered off a Shadow Game that killed 300 billion people. We have got to get the Senshi of this time use to the idea than not all demons are evil 'I want to take over the world before tomorrow' control freaks."

"How do we do that?"

"The best way you know how. You are going to help train some of the Sailor Senshi."

------------------------------------------------

"This Neko-ken is what makes you so fast?" asked Jupiter.

"Yep," said Ranko as she continued to speed eat.

"I would like to learn it."

"Nope." Ranko then paused, "Because the method to learning it results in an uncontrollable fear that temporarily drives the student insane."

"What would be this method?" asked Saturn.

"You dig a pit and fill it with starving monsters. You then tie up the student in fish products and throw in until they learn the technique. At which point you run for the hills because your student has gone crazy and thinks it is one of the monsters in the pit."

"And what monster is this pit filled with?!" asked Luna.

Reflexively Ranko glanced in Luna's direction with predictable results. "Cc-cccat!" Everyone was then treated to Ranko hanging from the ceiling which was followed by a clang as the Millennium Rod fell from Marik's hand to the floor.

"Could you find a place to hide Luna before Ranko flips out?" asked Pegasus sipping his tea.

"Sorry about that." said a terrified Ranko as Luna hid. "Stupid pops, stupid training method."

Pegasus got up and looked out a window at the Earth and frowned. "ShadowRealm ki down there is building. I think the Millennium Queen has arrived. Let's get down there and see what we can do to save a Kingdom."

------------------------------------------------

"What in the Moon Kingdom is that thing?" said Queen Serenity.

"Castle of Dark Illusions but I have never seen one with ShadowRealm Ki this high before," responded Pegasus.

"Level 4 going be big enough to get us all up there?" asked Ranko as lightning flashed across the sky.

"Actually, I was thinking of using Double Down to get up there," said Pegasus as he pulled out a card. Moments later everyone dismounted the ShadowBeing with Sailor Mars scowling, "Now before you get any bright ideas of blasting things there is a magic card call Mirror Force. Reflects your own attacks back at you," Pegasus paused as if sizing up the situation. "Well let's see what we are dealing with."

Several minutes later the group was working its way through the Castle to the throne room. "Nice place. Decorated in early gloomy," remarked Joey.

"Gothic, Joey. The term is Gothic," remarked Pegasus, "Have to admit given the way this place looks I half expect Dracula, the Wolfman, or the Mummy to jump out at us."

"Nothing so dramatic my dear Maxamillion Pegasus," said a young voice ahead of them. Stepping into the light there was a little girl with fire red hair with an all too familiar smirk on her face. "And you brought alternate versions of mother and father as well. The Millennium Queen and her advisor Wiseman will be so pleased."

Pegasus nodded in understanding as the girl led them into a throne room. There sitting in the throne was an all too familiar woman with the Millennium Puzzle hanging from her neck a figure in billowing robes standing beside her. Pegasus broke into a smirk of his own and giving an exaggerated bow said, "Millennium Queen Tsukino Usagi and Wiseman Maxamillion Pegasus I presume."

Wiseman shook his head removing his hood revealing a much older Pegasus. "There were times when I could be such a pompous jerk."

"Better that than a vapid airhead," said Millennium Queen Usagi glaring at Usagi.

"Well now we have got the insults out of the way I take you are here because of Crystal Tokyo," grinned Pegasus.

Wiseman Pegasus snorted, "Why else? When that Sailor Pluto maniac tried to blow my niece's head off I decided to see what kind of future she had planned after I sent the green haired bitch to the ShadowRealm."

"You were going to use me," growled Millennium Queen Usagi glaring at Queen Serenity, "Your little servant was going to turn my ideals not to mention me and my friends into perversions. She was going to convince all of us that turning everybody into an emotional zombie would make the world a Utopia. For that in the name of the ShadowRealm I should punish you," snarled Millennium Queen Usagi pushing herself up from the throne.

Pegasus stepped in between the two Queens, "Well miss high and mighty Millennium Queen your little take out the problem before it becomes a problem idea will send... Tea how many people to the nearest billion are there in the Moon Kingdom excluding Earth?"

"There are about 300 billion people."

"Will send 300 billion people to the ShadowRealm," Pegasus finished glaring at Millennium Queen Usagi.

"How can our ShadowRealm do that?" asked Wiseman Pegasus appalled.

"Ours can't but the Moon Kingdom's magic is also ShadowRealm based. In fact, your action resulted in the creation of the ShadowRealm that will inspire the Egyptians some 9,000 years hence to make the Items," said Pegasus holding up the book that had been used the create the Millennium Items. We originally came back to find out more about the Moon Kingdom's power. We got a lot more than we bargained for."

"What do you mean the Moon Kingdom's magic is also ShadowRealm based?" asked Millennium Queen her eyes narrowing.

"He means that our mother's reincarnation spell wound of killing all the people on the planets whose Sensei she had reincarnate," fumed Usagi

Pegasus slapped his forehead as the room started getting warmer. "You have been around Genma too long. That was the worst thing to say to her."

"What. Did. You. Say?" asked Millennium Queen as the reason for the room's sudden warmth became obvious as her battle aura finally became visible.

"Guys, that red aura is not a good thing, right?" asked Joey.

"What was your first clue?" asked Pegasus.

"We know what you are going through right now but you can't attack her. That is how the Moon Kingdom fell. That is what triggered the events that led to her casting the blasted spell," said Usagi.

"We know?"

"Me and Princess Serenity. Right now it is all I can do not to go and Moon Healing Escalate mother's sorry butt all over the Moon and Earth for totally fucking over my life and the lives of my friends as well as killing 300 billion people and creating that Pharaoh 90 thing. But there is too much at stake to go off like a lose cannon."

Suddenly, Time Gates appeared and four demon-like female figures emerged; one made of flame, one made of ice, one looking like a succubi, and the forth with long talons and teeth followed by four Sailor Senshi.

"STOP!" yelled a distorted voice as the groups turned toward each other. Everyone turned to see a robed female figure step into the room.

"Dead in one timeline does not mean dead in all," repeated Pegasus his face taking on an ashen appearance.

"Pegasus, you of all people should know things are not always as they appear," said the figure as it walked up to Queen Serenity pulling back its hood. Queen Serenity backed up at the familiar face smiling at her in an unpleasant manner. "Hello, _mother_. Miss me?"

"Kaiyanwang Paradox!" exclaimed both the Millennium Queen and Usagi.

The figure turned raising an eyebrow, "Oh great, you two meddling idiots. Mind telling me how you two figured out that I decided to expand my little punishment circle to include the bitch that started the whole mess in the first place?"

"You decided you add your own mother to your list of woman to rape list?!" asked Tea a horrified expression on her face.

"She was my mother in a _pervious_ life. To _me_ she is just another bitch who screwed up my life as Tsukino Usagi and needs punishment curtsey of some very horny lust demons."

"I refuse to believe that you are somehow the reincarnation of my daughter or have anything to do with the Moon Kingdom," spat Queen Serenity.

"You refuse to believe…" chuckled Paradox, "In the name of the Duelist Kingdom... oh the hell with it I am just going to put you in so much fucking pain you will be begging me to turn you over my lust demons when I am done! Moon Healing Escalation!" at which point Queen Serenity became part of a wall.

"My future self has gone crazy!" exclaimed Princess Serenity of the present.

"Gone crazy? Sadly Kaiyanwang Paradox was nutty than a fruit cake long before she got here," sighed Pegasus.

"Don't worry, _mother_," cackled Kaiyanwang Paradox as she slowly made her way across the room. "I'm not going to kill you. None of my lust demons are into necrophilia so I plan to keep you alive. I promise that after the first week you will be begging me to put you out of your misery in the future I have planned for you." Kaiyanwang Paradox pulled the older woman out of the wall and started slapping her awake. "Come on 'mother' I want to show you just what kind of hell you made my life and I want you awake to feel every moment of it," Kaiyanwang Paradox then turned her head. "Those shinto sleep points are not going to work against me. Moon Healing Escalation!" **KAPPOW** "So much for that annoyance."

"Hey Paradox-girl, think fast," said Pegasus as he blew some powder in Kaiyanwang Paradox face. "Now while she is occupied sneezing we grab the queen and RUN FOR OUR LIVES!" yelled Pegasus as he threw Queen Serenity over his shoulder and ran out of the room.

"Good idea. LET"S GET OUT OF HERE!" yelled Ranko as she pulled herself out of the wall, slung Usagi over one shoulder, and ran like a million cats were after her. "Gangway coming through," yelled Ranko as he plowed over anything in her path. Which did include Sailor Uranus and Neptune who had been a little slow on the up take.

Hotura ran over to one of the Outers and looked at her younger incarnation, "Grab an Outer and run. Between all three magic items she has more power than thousand Death Born Revolutions."

"Don't worry. This madwoman is our problem!" yelled Millennium Queen. When the other Inners just looked at her she screamed, "What you waiting for, an engraved invitation? Get out of here!"

Finally getting the point the remaining Inners and the Duelsts all made themselves scarce.

"What are you doing?!" yelled Queen Serenity as she bounced on Pegasus' shoulder.

"What's it look like? I'm running from a time traveling madwoman with you on my shoulder like a sack of wheat."

"Moon healing ACHOO!" **kaboom**, "Moon tiera ACHOO, **clang twank thunk**, Sorry, Ami ACHOO! Silver Moon Crystal Power Kiss! Now, Moon Scepter EliminaAKCHO!" **KAWHAM**

"Ok how many attacks does Kaiyanwang Loose Cannon have anyhow?" asked Ranko looking around for a door. "Oh the heck with it; I'll make my own! Cha-Lieh-Chong!"

"As Sailor Moon I would have ten attacks. But you implied she is on par with my mother," said the Princess having caught up to the martial artist. "But I haven't heard that Millennium Queen say any attacks."

"Given the comments old Purple Robe is making she is doing a lot of damage to her own trying to blast us."

"You do have a plan other than running away from the nutjob?" asked Usagi.

"Right now? No, that is why we are getting about as far away from her as possible."

"Blasted sneezing powder," fumed Paradox' voice. "Hey why haven't you done anything?"

"You were doing such a good job of pounding yourself I thought you didn't need any help but if you insist…" responded the voice of Millennium Queen.

"Why does that not sound like a good thing?" asked Princess Serenity.

"Because she is about to start throwing ShadowRealm magic around," responded Ranko as she ran through the hole she had just made. A few minutes latter as the Castle lurched to one side among explosions in the main hall, "Pegasus, tell me you have something."

"If you mean out of here, oh yes. If you mean to deal with our little reincarnated Princess' future self has gone totally around the bend problem I am still working on that," commented Pegasus looking through his deck as the rest of the group showed up. "Field of Safe Return," he said.

Looking around Ranko saw they were back in the TARDIS, "Ok, Pluto just how far off the main timeline are we?" asked Pegasus. A panel opened on one wall and a series of branching lines appeared with one colored blue and one green which were literally side by side. Pegasus cursed under his breath.

"Bad news I take it," stated Mercury.

Tea who had been looking through the TARSIS manual looked up, "Yes. According to Pluto this history has a very minor divergence from what was supposed to happen. So it looks like Kaiyanwang Paradox showing up has not had any pronounced effect on future events."

"What is she talking about?" asked Queen Serenity, "And could you put me down now?"

Pegasus simple shrugged and let Queen Serenity drop to the floor. Landing on her rear the Queen of the Moon kingdom glared up at Pegasus. "You really don't know how to treat royally."

"You got off easy _mother_. If it was up to me... well let's just say my plans are not fit for airing in mixed company," commented the form on Ranko's shoulder who quickly found herself falling but unlike her mother she landed on her feet. "My, aren't we cranky today."

"Do you really think I was such a poor judge for your skill at avoiding damage?" asked Ranko.

"We have other problems," said Pegasus looking at a monitor that showed the island.

"Good grief, what is that?!" asked Joey as a column of black energy erupted from the island into the sky.

"Pure ShadowRealm Ki."

"It is more than that, Pegasus," said Tea as her eye read the information on her visor. "It is also Death Ki."

"Death Ki?" asked Ranko. "What is that?!"

"Offhand it sounds like the form Ki would take at the moment of death," commented Pegasus. "It makes sense because energy cannot be created or destroyed only changed in form." Pegasus then scowled, "It is also in keeping with the term _Shadow_Realm. The Valley of the Shadow is an English euphemism for Death. Everything we have learned points to ShadowRealm magic being a very advanced form of necromancy."

"Oh, that is just freaking great," fumed Parvati. "Necromancy is one of the most respected and yet despised and feared forms of magic there is. It is respected because anyone good at it has demonstrated great diligence just by surviving. It is despised because it captures one of the few things all beings regard sacred: souls. It is also feared because most would be necromancers summon stuff they and their local dimension can't handle very well and somebody else has to go in and clean up the mess."

"Last part describes our happy little patchwork group very well," commented Pegasus. Pegasus then sighed. "Do you want to tell them how given the mess she made Paradox is down there or should I?"

"Kuso, I hoped I was misreading her aura. The very simple reason is she didn't get here," commented Ranko.

"Come again?" asked Joey. "We just saw that time traveling freak…"

"No, Joey, you saw something that looked and acted like that time traveling freak," said Ranko. "While reading her Ki without touching her is next to impossible I was able to see enough to tell you whatever that thing is it is certainly _not_ Kaiyanwang Paradox. That is why Pegasus told us to run."

"Thing not person," responded Princess Serenity.

"Ranko is right. We have met the real Kaiyanwang Paradox and whatever the blazes we faced down there it certainly was not her." Pegasus pointed to the left side of his face. "My Eye allows me to see souls, even the fragments that Wu have. That thing we met below had no soul what so ever. I am not even sure it had any real substance. The one thing I could pick up via my Eye is it believes it is Kaiyanwang Paradox. That is the only reason the sneezing powder worked."

"Because it would have worked on the Kaiyanwang Paradox," nodded Queen Serenity.

"Yes and I already have an idea what that thing really is," said Pegasus as he went over and opened the little box in which the Ningen no Zou was stored. Inside the statue was surrounded by a black aura.

"It is the exact same Ki as that Kaiyanwang Paradox below…" Tea paused and paled, "as well as Pharaoh 90."

Pegasus nodded looking the statue in the eye and asked, "Mind telling us why, Pharaoh 90?"

"Why?" hissed a voice from the statue. "The Millennium Queen's arrival would have ushered in a new golden age but this descent of our Queen was such a bigot bitch and her guardians so trigger happy they screwed it all up."

"Your Queen?" asked Pegasus who then nodded. "I take it I am talking to some of the souls of the previous Sailor Senshi."

**GIGGLE**. "Very good."

"What?!" asked Kaiyanwang Mettalla her jaw hanging open. "But why?"

"Why what?" asked the voice the eyes of the statue now glowing in rhythm to the voice. "If you are asking about Pharaoh 90 well we needed _something_ to get the Inners and Outers to work together rather than going at it like two gaggle of idiots and your two halves were too busy trying to bash in each other's head to do anything. If they had continued as they were they would have eventually been fighting each other. The world we were in could not survive a civil war between the Senshi. Our plans changed when you, Ranma, and Ranko entered the picture. Unfortunately the allies we had to make proved to be unreliable and Kaiyanwang Paradox's appearance threw everything else into the trash heap."

"Then you don't know why or even how the Cleansing or Kaiyanwang Paradox happened," stated Usagi.

"No, like Pluto we can only see events via the Time Gates. The thoughts and reasons behind those events are as unknown to us as they would be to her."

"None of this explains why you recreated Kaiyanwang Paradox," said Ranko glaring at the statue.

"Strictly speaking we didn't create that _thing_ down there, not intentionally at any rate. You see Kaiyanwang Paradox has created what is known as a Grandfather Paradox. She has, as impossible as it sounds, succeeded in her insane dream to erase herself from history. But for that change to happen in the first place Kaiyanwang Paradox must exist. To address this problem Ginzuishou and Jakokusuishou tapped my energy to maintain that _thing_ down there and there is nothing we can do to stop it."

"Perhaps you can't stop it but we can."

**SNORT "**Ranko, you and your friends are quite capable but this ShadowRealm construct is just as powerful as the real thing was at her height. What you fought was a dying version of Kaiyanwang Paradox who was using nearly all the magical energy of the Ginzuishou and Jakokusuishou simply to stay alive until she completed her goal. This version is using my energy to simply simulate the form and memories of Kaiyanwang Paradox allowing it to access the full power of the Ginzuishou and Jakokusuishou."

"But that power is limited by what the real Kaiyanwang Paradox knew and from what we saw Shadow Games were not part of her knowledge base," stated Pegasus.

"You cannot defeat her; you simply do not have enough raw power. Only Queen Eclipse had the needed combination of power and knowledge and she was erased as well."

"Who says that Queen Eclipse is gone?" asked Usagi angrily.

"Child, I have a good idea what is going through your head and you cannot do that!"

"Why not? My friends have been wiped out and we both are tired of being everybody's freaking puppet or stalking horse." Usagi looked at the Inners that had arrived through the portal after Paradox sadness in her features. "Let me guess, they are not real either."

"Meatball head, what do you mean we are not real?" asked Rei.

"I think she means we are constructs like that thing down there," said Minako hugging herself.

"That is insane and impossible!" yelled Makoto.

"No," said Ami shaking her head sadly, "It is not impossible." She then walked over to Makoto and put her hand on her chest over her heart. "What do you feel?"

"What?"

"No heartbeat," Ami then touched her own neck for a moment and sighed, "No pulse. The only time we breathe is when we talk." Ami narrowed her eyes, "Face it, none of us are human."

"If we aren't human then what the blazes are we!" yelled Rei.

Ami simply looked down at her left arm and then reached over with her right arm and grabbed some skin. "Let's find out," she said as she pulled.

To the horror of the Sailor Senshi of the past the girl's skin came away as if she was tearing cloth revealing a slightly transparent light blue arm underneath. "Obviously not human," commented Ami.

"How can you be so calm about this!" yelled Rei.

"You think I like finding out everything I remember is a freaking lie!" exploded Ami. "It is taking all of Ami's objectivity for me to keep from throwing up!" ranted the girl holding up her left arm.

"You have human souls," said Pegasus calmly.

Ami looked at Pegasus stunned, "WHAT?! Does this look like a human arm to you?!" she screeched pointing to her arm.

"Wait a minute," said Usagi pulling out her compact. "Of course, if the Ginzuishou is effectively a super Millennium Item that means… ShadowBeings. My friends souls were tied to this thing when they died fighting Queen Beryl. Paradox could erase their physical bodies but not their souls." Usagi walked up to Rei and reached up to her face. "Fire Demon," she said as she ripped off the very lifelike face revealing a very similar one orange in color underneath.

Rei blinked and pulled the face mask from Usagi's hand and simply stared at it as Usagi walked to Minako and turned her around. Next she reached up and ripped out the back of the Sailor Senshi costume revealing two bat like wings. "Succubi." She then continued on to Makoto and sighed. "Makoto, you are not going to like this. Think of your hands and feet turning into claws."

Trembling Makoto closed her eyes and slowly her hands and feet turned into wicked looking talons. Opening her eyes she simply looked at the changes.

"Some variant of Harpies lady?" Usagi asked looking back at Pegasus.

Pegasus nodded as he looked back at the statue. "Are you really sure about this?"

"Wiseman was the counterpoint to Neo-Queen Serenity and Queen Eclipse is the counter point to Kaiyanwang Paradox," said Usagi as she walked up to the statue. Reaching up she held the statue and yelled. "Moon Healing Escalation!" causing the room to go white as the blast went right back into her.

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Author's note: I'm not entirely happy with this chapter but given how long I have been messing with it I decided to get it out and be done with it


	31. Chap 31 Kingdoms End

Ranma 1/2 is the creation of Rumiko Takahashi, 3x3 eyes (Sazan Eyes) is the creation of Yuzo Takada, Sailor Moon is the creation of Naoko Takeuchi. There are also a few other characters from other anime. All are used without permission. This fan-fiction isn't intended for commercial use but is rather a tribute to Ranma 1/2, 3x3 Eyes, and Sailor Moon.

Chap 31 When Kingdoms End

Usagi fell to her knees as both her mind and that of Princess Serenity game to grips with what they had done to themselves.. "Kaiyanwang Paradox, Princess Serenity, Tsukino Usagi, Neo-Queen Serenity, Queen Eclipse. Past, Present, Future," she gasped. Her eyes snapped opened and she looked at Queen Serenity, "and all because you wanted to be a bigoted idiot," she growled as she slowly stood.

Pegasus frowned as he noticed the column slowed down and then stopped. "We're back on the Moon," he said opening the door. Stepping out they were greeted by the Castle of Dark Illusions hanging in the sky the Earth behind it in the distance. Around it were dark clouds with lightning flashing between them.

"You don't have two months, Pegasus," said Usagi. "The time table has been moved up. One way or another this is the Moon Kingdom's last day."

"What? But why? We can stop the battle," asked Merik.

"No, you can't and the reason is the planet that exists in this universe's solar system but not our own. The true innermost planet: Vulcan."

"What is Vulcan? Why doesn't it have a sensei?" asked Tea.

"It's a prison planet. It is where Sensei put those who are a detriment to the welfare of the Moon Kingdom. Some of them are there simply because of what they are not what they have done," said Usagi glaring.

Queen Serenity and her sensei all took a nervous step back under the gaze of the other people in the courtyard. "So that is the secret of the Moon Kingdom's supposed utopia," glared Pegasus his Eye flashing. Suddenly a beam of light shot from his eye and a winged horse stood between Pegasus and Queen Serenity.

"Thanks to Ranma your dreams became pure and noble enough for me to hide in them, Maximillian Pegasus," said the horse. "I have come out because the actions of Queen Serenity and her sailor Sensei may have crushed pure and noble dreams here."

"May have?" asked Usagi sarcastically as she folded her arms. "How can anyone have pure and noble dreams when they live in constant fear of _disappearing_?"

"Mother, what is she talking about?" asked Princess Serenity. "We are supposed to rule through justice, kindness, and love not through fear and intimidation."

Queen Serenity gave a small sad smile. "You are still young. The sensei and I do what is needed to make the Moon Kingdom the utopia that it is."

"Utopia?!" screeched Princess Serenity. "That is not what I am getting here, mother."

"Utopia?" laughed Kaiyanwang Metalla. "The Moon Kingdom was never intended to be a utopia, my dear descendent." Kaiyanwang Metalla narrowed her eyes. "It was intended as a weapon against three Sanjiyan Unkara who went mad and thought they were no less than the Supreme Creator. Every person in this kingdom was supposed to realize their full fighting potential and instead we have a population that might have well have targets painted on their shirts. You were supposed to follow in our path and establish treaties with the various demon species NOT GO AROUND BLASTING THEM OR LOCKING THEM UP!"

"How could you?" "That goes against everything we are supposed to believe in!" shouted several of the daughters to their Sensei mothers.

"Didn't you hear? They're _demons_!" shouted Queen Serenity. "You can't attach _human_ traits to them. They are creatures incapable of even understanding love and they know nothing about justice."

"Mother, the only ones who don't understand love and justice is you and _your_ sailor sensei," said Usagi as she pulled out a card.

Pegasus paled. "That card is blank! Usagi, Prince Serenity, I don't know which of you is doing this but stop. That is not the way to deal with this. Believe me I know."

"This is lot more than bringing back your wife, Pegasus. This is about stopping a Shadow Game before it kills 300 billion people. It won't change our past but it will prevent everything we went through from happening in the future we will create. SOUL CAPTURE!"

A beam shot out of the card and hit Queen Serenity who then collapsed. "What have you done?!" yelled Princess Serenity as she tried to shake her mother awake.

"I yanked her soul out her body," said Usagi coldly gesturing to the image of Queen Serenity now on the card. "It's one of the powers both the Ginzuishou and Jakokusuishou have," she said as she put the card away and turned to face the Castle of Dark Illusions. "Queen Beryl, this is Queen Eclipse the reincarnation of Princess Serenity from 12,000 years from now. I believe you are here for a Shadow Game."

Queen Beryl descended from the castle the Millennium Queen and her group standing beside her. "What are the terms?"

"If I win we do this my way. If you win I restore Queen Serenity's soul and you get to do it your way. Shadow Game vs Shadow Match."

"Agreed."

Usagi held out her deck. "If you want in this you know what you have to do." After looking as each other Usagi's friends disappeared leaving only cards where they stood. Usagi nodded and after picking up the cards shuffled them into her deck.

"You may go first," said Beryl.

Usagi gestured and five cards floated up in front of her. She then touched two of them. "Harpies lady in attack mode with ax of darkness," Usagi said as the cards disappeared and a winged creature wielding an insanely huge ax appeared.

"Celtic Guardian in attack mode and a little something else. Your turn."

"Harpies Lady attack Celtic Guardian."

Beryl shook her head. "Are you a novice in this? Activate Kunai with Chain."

"A trap card but this is where the differences start to play havoc," grinned Usagi as the Harpies lady caught the Kunai with Chain with its ax of darkness doing an aerial summersault that ended with its feet slamming into the Celtic Guardian's face knocking it down. As the Celtic Guardian stood up the Harpie Lady swung the handle of the ax right between the legs.

Beryl blinked at the Celtic Guardian being turned into a punching a bag and then looked at Usagi. "I think we have a misunderstanding here. You seem to think we favor the old Shadow Games. We don't."

"We being you and Metallia," said Usagi calmly. "I know about Vulcan and I do not approve," said Usagi narrowing her eyes.

"Neither do we," said Beryl narrowing her eyes. "That was not part of the original plan. Neither was using the Moon Kingdom's Shadow Realm to reduce people's drives and ambitions."

It seemed the temperature of the moon dropped a full 20 degrees as each daughter scowled at her Sailor Senshi parent. Sailor Saturn started walking toward Usagi and Queen Beryl her expression unreadable. Beryl took a slight step back but Usagi simply looked at Saturn. "You're not afraid of me," Saturn stated.

"No, I am not."

"Even though I can destroy worlds," replied Saturn.

"Queen Serenity destroyed the life on eight worlds with one act of stupidly born out of ignorance and fear. I want to understand you better, Saturn; but I can't do that if I am in fear of you."

Saturn started trembling. "You want to know me?" she asked her voice cracking. "What is there to know? I am a living weapon, nothing more."

"Bullcrap!" snapped Usagi. "No matter how long you were a Wu you still have emotions. I don't know what kind of relationship you and the original Pluto had but you need to realize she is gone and you can't keep pushing everyone way."

"It is they who push me away," replied Saturn angrily. "Not even my master's own mother will accept me as a person." Saturn looked down.

"Saturn, I want to know you as a person but you keep so much of yourself bottled up," said Princess Serenity walking toward the three.

As Celtic Guardian went down the Harpie Lady looked at Beryl. "If neither you support the Shadow Games then how can this contest continue?"

"It can't," said Usagi looking at Beryl as two figures flew to land between them.

The Millennium Queen backhanded Kaiyanwang Paradox sending her flying right next to Usagi. Smiling in a nasty way Usagi picked up the manifestation of her possible future. "Don't you see? You can't win because you aren't real!" she snarled in the being's face.

Kaiyanwang Paradox cocked her head and gasped. "No, this is not how it was supposed to work!"

"If Wiseman is a response to Neo-Queen Serenity then Queen Eclipse is a response to you."

"There is no more Queen Eclipse. She and the real Kaiyanwang Paradox no longer exist." The manifestation lifted its hands looking at them. "But somehow I was created. With all Kaiyanwang Paradox's memories and powers at her height."

"Grandfather's Paradox," snarled Usagi. "The one thing she could not overcome. There was no way for her to eliminate herself from the multiverse because the actions required her existence and not who ever she was trying to groom for her position. You are also wrong about Queen Eclipse." Usagi's clothes changed into a gray version of Neo-Queen Serenity's outfit. "Guess who else is back, bitch!" Usagi said as she punched the manifestation full in the face sending it flying into a wall.

The manifestation was still trying to stand when a high-healed boot slammed into its face. "I am fucking tired of all of you screwing up my life!" screamed Usagi as she started punching the manifestation. "I have had enough of you, Sailor Pluto, Metallia, and especially Queen Serenity deciding what is best for me." Usagi then started slamming the manifestation's head into a wall. "You could have rebuilt your life but no you had to go screw up mine. You and Neo Queen Serenity are identical in that you both don't want to accept that life means pain. You both tried to create an idealistic utopia; well here is a news flash: there is no such thing. Even here there was a dark secret to the supposed utopia of the Moon Kingdom."

The manifestation of Kaiyanwang Paradox never thought such pain was possible as a high-healed boot slammed into its face. Action and reaction. The real Kaiyanwang Paradox not existing had created this version of Queen Eclipse so if that was reversed the pain would stop. The manifestation tapped into its power and changed one event exploding in the process.

Usagi blinked as the manifestation disappeared to be replaced by two familiar figures. "…the Time Gates will go wild," said Kaiyanwang Paradox as another Queen Eclipse back handed her.

"What the…?" asked the stunned Queen Eclipse.

Usagi spun around and grabbed Saturn's Silent Glaive. "This ends when it began!" she screamed running Paradox through with the weapon.

Kaiyanwang Paradox gasped grabbing the Silent Glaive spitting up blood. "No one has the right to play god, Paradox," growled Usagi in a voice that was a mixture of hers and Princess Serenity's "You're dying anyhow so let's just move up the fucking time table," snarled the girl as she pulled the Silent Glaive up disemboweling Paradox. Paradox made a gurgling sound and expired. Usagi just stood there her face turning from anger to shock. With a shaking hand she reached over and removed Paradox's hood and looked into her own dead features. She then pulled out a card and said, "Soul return!"

Queen Serenity opened her eyes to see her daughter looking at something with an expression of total horror on her face. Looking in the same direction she saw three versions of what looked like her daughter with one of them gutted by another while the third simply stared. "Take a good look, Queen Simpleton," said Usagi her voice filled with pain and sorrow. "This is one of the futures your moronic actions resulted in. Your daughter's reincarnation literally killing herself," said as she fell to her knees and started sobbing.

"It is painful to see noble dreams become corrupted like this," said the flying horse.

"Alright," said Princess Serenity in an icy cold voice. " You gave us a brief description of this mess but I want a full explanation for it and I want it right now."

"Well that shoots the week to hell," said Pegasus as the winged horse shook his head.

It actually took far less than a week to give the overview of the mess. The scale was at such a level Queen Serenity couldn't keep it quiet especially as all four versions of her daughter flat out stated that the Moon Kingdom would know what had happened. That totally destroyed any chance of Queen Serenity or her Sailor Senshi from having any decree of control not that they didn't continue to try. That effort lasted perhaps a month before Princess Serenity staged a successful relatively bloodless coup d'état with the help of the Millennium Queen and the two Queen Eclipses. Her very first order was the total dissolvement of the Moon Kingdom in favor of a Moon Republic.

"So in this world ends the Moon Kingdom, not with a bang but with a whimper," said Pegasus to the flying horse.

The horse looked at him namesake and nodded his head. "One dream has ended and something far more noble has replaced it. I think I will be happy here."

"I wish we had more time but we need to heal the mess Paradox made of our timeline." Pegasus sighed. "We have some idea on how the Moon Kingdom Shadow Realm came about but there is one key piece of information missing and that piece can only be found in our time."

"Because you would not be able to prevent yourselves from altering events," said the horse.

"With what I know I would stop the battle I remember in heartbeat," said Guardian Pluto. "But it won't change my world one damn bit."

"The final answer to this is in the aftermath of _that_ Moon Kingdom," said Pegasus grimly. "The answer of how you and the Moon Cats wound up in our universe and why you didn't know that."


End file.
